THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


DINOSAURS 


W.  D.  MATTHEW 


NEW  YORK 
AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

1915 


HANDBOOK  SERIES  No.  5. 


oCX 


DINOSAURS 

WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO 
THE  AMERICAN  MUSEUM  COLLECTIONS 

BY 

W.  D.  MATTHEW 
CURATOR  OF  VERTEBRATE  PALEONTOLOGY 


.  .  .  'Dragons  of  the  prime 

That  tare  each  other  in  their  slime' 


NEW  YORK 
AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 

1915 


Geology 
Libra* 


DINOSAURS. 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


D5M4 


CHAPTER  I.         The  Ago  of  Reptiles.     Its  Antiquity,  Duration 

and  Significance  in  Geological  History 9 

CHAPTER  II.        North     America     in     the     Age     of     Reptiles. 

Its  Geographic  and  Climatic  Changes 16 

CHAPTER  III.  Kinds  of  Dinosaurs.  Common  Characters  and 
Differences  between  the  various  Groups. 
Classification 25 

CHAPTER  IV.       The  Carnivorous  Dinosaurs — Allosaurus,  Tyran- 

nosaurus,  Ornitholestes,  etc 33 

CHAPTER  V.        The     Amphibious     Dinosaurs  —  Brontosaurus, 

Diplodocus,  etc 60 

CHAPTER  VI.       The  Beaked  Dinosaurs. 

The  Iguanodonts — Iguanodon,Camptosaurus.    .         75 

CHAPTER  VII.     The  Beaked  Dinosaurs  (continued). 

The  Duckbilled  Dinosaurs — Trachodon,  Sauro- 
lophus 82 

CHAPTER  VIII.  The  Beaked  Dinosaurs  (continued). 

The  Armored  Dinosaurs — Stegosaurus,  Ankylo- 
saurus 101 

CHAPTER  IX.      The  Beaked  Dinosaurs  (concluded). 

The  Horned  Dinosaurs — Triceratops,  etc 107 

CHAPTER  X.        Geographical  Distribution  of  Dinosaurs 114 

CHAPTER  XI.  Collecting  Dinosaurs.  How  and  Where  they 
are  Found.  The  First  Discovery  of  Dinosaurs 
in  the  West.  The  Bone-Cabin  Quarry.  Fossil 
Hunting  by  Boat  in  Canada 116 


PREFACE. 

This  volume  is  in  large  part  a  reprint  of  various 
popular  descriptions  and  notices  in  the  American 
Museum  Journal  and  elsewhere  by  Professor  Henry 
Fairfield  Osborn,  Mr.  Barnum  Brown,  and  the  writer. 
There  has  been  a  considerable  demand  for  these  articles 
which  are  now  mostly  out  of  print.  In  reprinting  it 
seemed  best  to  combine  and  supplement  them  so  as  to 
make  a  consecutive  and  intelligible  account  of  the 
Dinosaur  collections  in  the  Museum.  The  original 
notices  are  quoted  verbatim;  for  the  remainder  of  the 
text  the  present  writer  is  responsible.  Professor  S.  W. 
Williston  of  Chicago  University  has  kindly  contributed 
a  chapter — all  too  brief — describing  the  first  discoveries 
of  dinosaurs  in  the  Western  formations  that  have  since 
yielded  so  large  a  harvest. 

The  photographs  of  American  Museum  specimens  are 
by  Mr.  A.  E.  Anderson;  the  field  photographs  by  various 
Museum  expeditions;  the  restorations  by  Mr.  Charles 
R.  Knight.  Most  of  these  illustrations  have  been 
published  elsewhere  by  Professor  Osborn,  Mr.  Brown 
and  others.  The  diagrams,  figs.  1-9,  24,  25,  37  and  40, 
are  mv  own.  W.  D.  M. 


CHAPTER  I. 
THE   AGE   OF  REPTILES. 

ITS  ANTIQUITY,  DURATION  AND  SIGNIFICANCE  IN 
GEOLOGIC  HISTORY. 

Palaeontology  deals  with  the  History  of  Life.  Its 
time  is  measured  in  geologic  epochs  and  periods,  in 
millions  of  years  instead  of  centuries.  Man,  by  this 
measure,  is  but  a  creature  of  yesterday — his  "forty 
centuries  of  civilization"*  but  a  passing  episode.  It  is 
by  no  means  easy  for  us  to  adjust  our  perspective  to 
the  immensely  long  spaces  of  time  involved  in  geolog- 
ical evolution.  We  are  apt  to  think  of  all  these  extinct 
animals  merely  as  prehistoric — to  imagine  them  all 
living  at  the  same  time  and  contending  with  our  cave- 
dwelling  ancestors  for  the  mastery  of  the  earth. 

In  order  to  understand  the  place  of  the  Dinosaurs  in 
world-history,  we  must  first  get  some  idea  of  the  length 
of  geologic  periods  and  the  immense  space  of  time 
separating  one  extinct  fauna  from  another. 

The  Age  of  Man.  Prehistoric  time,  as  it  is  commonly 
understood,  is  the  time  when  barbaric  and  savage  tribes 
of  men  inhabited  the  world  but  before  civilization 
began,  and  earlier  than  the  written  records  on  which 
history  is  based.  This  corresponds  roughly  to  the 


*Thc  records  of  Egypt  and  Chaldaea  extend  back  at  least  sixty 
centuries. 


10  DINOSAURS 

Pleistocene  epoch  of  geology;  it  is  included  along  with 
the  much  shorter  time  during  which  civilization  has 
existed,  in  the  latest  and  shortest  of  the  geological 
periods,  the  Quaternary.  It  was  the  age  of  the  mam- 
moth and  the  mastodon,  the  megatherium  and  Irish 
deer  and  of  other  quadrupeds  large  and  small  which 
are  now  extinct;  but  most  of  its  animals  were  the  same 
species  as  now  exist.  It  was  marked  by  the  great 
episode  of  the  Ice  Age,  when  considerable  parts  of  the 
earth's  surface  were  buried  under  immense  accumula- 
tions of  ice,  remnants  of  which  are  still  with  us  in  the 
icy  covering  of  Greenland  and  Antarctica. 

The  Age  of  Mammals.  Before  this  period  was  a  very 
much  longer  one — at  least  thirty  times  as  long — during 
which  modern  quadrupeds  were  slowly  evolving  from 
small  and  primitive  ancestors  into  their  present  variety 
of  form  and  size.  This  is  the  Tertiary  Period  or  Age 
of  Mammals.  Through  this  long  period  we  can  trace 
step  by  step  the  successive  stages  through  which  the 
ancestors  of  horses,  camels,  elephants,  rhinoceroses, 
etc.,  were  gradually  converted  into  their  present  form 
in  adaptation  to  their  various  habits  and  environment. 
And  with  them  were  slowly  evolved  various  kinds  of 
quadrupeds  whose  descendants  do  not  now  exist,  the 
Titanotheres,  Elotheres,  Oreodonts,  etc.,  extinct  races 
which  have  not  survived  to  our  time.  Man,  as  such, 
had  not  yet  come  into  existence,  nor  are  we  able  to 
trace  any  direct  and  complete  line  of  ancestry  among 
the  fossil  species  known  to  us;  but  his  collateral  an- 


THE    AGE     OF     REPTILES 


11 


cestors  were  represented  by  the  fossil  species  of  monkeys 
and  lemurs  of  the  Tertiary  period. 

The  Age  of  Reptiles.     Preceding  the  Age  of  Mammals 
lies  a  long  vista  of  geologic  periods  of  which  the  later 

THE   LATER  AGES  OF   GEOLOGIC  TIME 


REIGN    OF  MAJ^V 

QUATERNARY 
PERIOD    | 

MAMMOTH  AND    MASTODON 
THE     EOHIPPUS  > 

THE      AGE 
OF  MAMMALS 

EVOLUTI  ON 
OF     THE 
HIGHER   QUADRUPEDS 
DURING 
3,000,000    YEARS 

TERTIARY 
PERIOD 
3,000,000  YRS 

HORNED     DINOSAURS 
DUCK-BILLED    DINOSAURS 

ETC. 

IGUANODON  (EUROPE) 
THE    BRONTOSAURUS  > 

CONNECTICUT  VALLEY     "1  
DINOSAUR   FOOT-  PRINTS/ 

THE   FORT  LEE    REPTILE"!  
(  PHYTOSAUR)            J 

THE    AGE 
OF    REPTILES 

DINOSAURS 
WERE  THE  CHIEF 
LAND    ANIMALS 
DURING  THIS  ERA 
OF 
9,000,000 
YEARS 

CRETACIC 
PERIOD 
3,000,000  Y'RS 

COMANCHIC 
PERIOD 
2,000,000  Y'RS 

JURASSIC 
PERIOD 
2,000,000  Y'RS 

TRIASSIC 
PERIOD 
Z.000,000  Y'RS 

Fig.  1.— The  Later  Ages  of  Geologic  Time. 


12  DINOSAURS 

ones  are  marked  by  the  dominance  of  Reptiles,  and  are 
grouped  together  as  the  Age  of  Reptiles  or  Mesozoic 
Era.  This  was  the  reign  of  the  Dinosaurs,  and  in  it 
we  are  introduced  to  a  world  of  life  so  different  from  that 
of  today  that  we  might  well  imagine  ourselves  upon 
another  planet. 

None  of  the  ordinary  quadrupeds  with  which  we  are 
familiar  then  existed,  nor  any  related  to  nor  resembling 
t  hem.  But  in  their  place  were  reptiles  large  and  small, 
carnivorous  and  herbivorous,  walking,  swimming  and 
even  flying. 

Crocodiles,  Turtles  and  8ea  Reptiles.  The  Crocodiles 
and  Turtles  of  the  swamps  were  not  so  very  different 
from  their  modern  descendants;  there  were  also  sea- 
crocodiles,  sea-turtles,  huge  marine  lizards  (Mosasaurs) 
\\  it  h  flippers  instead  of  feet;  and  another  group  of  great 
marine  reptiles  (Plesiosaurs)  somewhat  like  sea-turtles 
but  with  long  neck  and  toothed  jaws  and  without  any 
carapace.  These  various  kinds  of  sea-reptiles  took  the 
place  of  the  great  sea  mammals  of  modern  times  (which 
were  evolved  during  the  Age  of  Mammals);  of  whales 
and  dolphins,  seals  and  walruses,  and  manatees. 

Pterodactyls.  The  flying  Reptiles  or  Pterosaurians, 
partly  took  the  place  of  birds,  and  most  of  them  were  of 
small  size.  Strange  bat-winged  creatures,  the  wing 
membrane  stretched  on  the  enormously  elongated 
fourth  finger,  they  are  of  all  extinct  reptiles  the  least 
understood,  the  most  difficult  to  reconstruct  and 
visualize  as  they  were  in  life. 


THE     AGE     OF    REPTILES  li* 

Dinosaurs.  The  land  reptiles  were  chiefly  Dinosaurs, 
a  group  which  flourished  throughout  the  Age  of  Reptiles 
and  became  extinct  at  its  close.  "Dinosaur"  is  a 
general  term  which  covers  as  wide  a  variety  in  size  and 
appearance  as  "Quadruped"  among  modern  animals. 
And  the  Dinosaurs  in  the  Age  of  Reptiles  occupied 
about  the  same  place  in  nature  as  the  larger  quadrupeds 
do  today.  They  have  been  called  the  Giant  Reptiles, 
for  those  we  know  most  about  were  gigantic  in  size,  but 
there  were  also  numerous  smaller  kinds,  the  smallest  no 
larger  than  a  cat.  All  of  them  had  short,  compact 
bodies,  long  tails,  and  long  legs  for  a  reptile,  and  instead 
of  crawling,  they  walked  or  ran,  sometimes  upon  alt 
fours,  more  generally  upon  the  hind  limbs,  like  ostriches, 
the  long  tail  balancing  the  weight  of  the  body.  Some 
modern  lizards  run  this  way  on  occasion,  especially 
if  they  are  in  a  hurry.  But  the  bodies  of  lizards  are  too 
long  and  their  limbs  too  small  and  slender  for  this  to  be 
the  usual  mode  of  progress,  as  it  seems  to  have  been 
among  the  Dinosaurs. 
ANIMALS  OF  THE  AGE  OF  REPTILES. 
LAND  REPTILES. 

DINOSAURS  corresponding  to  the  larger  quadrupeds  or  land 

mammals  of  today. 

CROCODILES,  LIZARDS  AND  TURTLES  still  surviving. 
SEA  REPTILES. 

PLESIOSAURS       1  corresponding  to  whales,  dolphins,  seals,  etc., 
ICHTHYOSAURS  \    or  sea-mammals  of  today. 
MOSASAURS 

FLYING  REPTILES  OR  PTEROSAURS. 
BIRDS  WITH  TEETH  (scarce  and  little  known). 
PRIMITIVE  MAMMALS  of  minute  size  (scarce  and  little  known). 
FISHES  and  INVERTEBRATES  many  of  them  of  extinct  races,  all 
more  or  less  different  from  modern  kinds. 


1 4  DINOSAURS 

Fishes,  large  and  small,  were  common  in  the  seas  and 
rivers  of  the  Age  of  Reptiles  but  all  of  them  were  more 
or  less  different  from  modern  kinds,  and  many  belonged 
to  ancient  races  now  rare  or  extinct. 

The  lower  animals  or  Invertebrates  were  also  different 
from  those  of  today,  although  some  would  not  be  very 
noticeably  so  at  first  glance.  Among  molluscs,  the 
Ammonites,  related  to  the  modern  Pearly  Nautilus,  are 
an  example  of  a  race  very  numerous  and  varied  during 
all  the  periods  of  the  Reptilian  Era,  but  disappearing 
at  its  close,  leaving  only  a  few  collateral  descendants  in 
the  squids,  cuttlefish  and  nautili  of  the  modern  seas. 
The  Brachiopods  were  another  group  of  molluscs,  or 
rather  molluscoids  for  they  were  not  true  molluscs,  less 
abundant  even  then  than  in  previous  ages  and  now  sur- 
viving only  in  a  few  rare  and  little  known  types  such  as 
the  lamp-shell  ( Terebratulina) . 

Insects.  The  Insect  life  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  Age 
of  Reptiles  was  notable  for  the  absence  of  all  the  higher 
groups  and  orders,  especially  those  adapted  to  feed  on 
flowers.  There  were  no  butterflies  or  moths,  no  bees 
or  wasps  or  ants  although  there  were  plenty  of  dragon- 
flies,  cockroaches,  bugs  and  beetles.  But  in  the  latter 
part  of  this  era,  all  these  higher  orders  appeared  along 
with  the  flowering  plants  and  trees. 

Plants.  The  vegetation  in  the  early  part  of  the  era 
was  very  different  both  from  the  gloomy  forests  of  the 
more  ancient  Coal  Era  and  from  that  which  prevails 
today.  Cycads,  ferns  and  fern-like  plants,  coniferous 


THE     AGE     OF    REPTILES  15 

trees,  especially  related  to  the  modern  Araucaria  or 
Norfolk  Island  Pine,  Ginkgos  still  surviving  in  China, 
and  huge  equisetae  or  horsetail  rushes,  still  surviving  in 
South  American  swamps  and  with  dwarfed  relatives 
throughout  the  world,  were  the  dominant  plant  types 
of  that  era.  The  flowering  plants  and  deciduous  trees 
had  not  appeared.  But  in  the  latter  half  of  the  era 
these  appeared  in  ever  increasing  multitudes,  displacing 
the  lower  types  and  relegating  them  to  a  subordinate 
position.  Unlike  the  more  rapidly  changing  higher 
animals  these  ancient  Mesozoic  groups  of  plants  have 
not  wholly  disappeared,  but  still  survive,  mostly  in 
tropical  and  southern  regions  or  as  a  scanty  remnant  in 
contrast  with  their  once  varied  and  dominant  role. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  upon  the  appear- 
ance of  these  higher  plants  whose  flower  and  fruit 
afforded  a  more  concentrated  and  nourishing  food, 
depended  largely  the  evolution  of  the  higher  animal 
life  both  vertebrate  and  insect,  of  the  Cenozoic  or 
modern  era. 


CHAPTER  II. 
NORTH  AMERICA  IN  THE  AGE  OF  REPTILES. 

ITS  GEOGRAPHIC  AND  CLIMATIC  CHANGES. 

North  America  in  the  Age  of  Reptiles  would  have 
seemed  almost  as  strange  to  our  eyes  in  its  geography  as 
in  its  animals  and  plants.  The  present  outlines  of  its 
coast,  its  mountains  and  valleys,  its  rivers  and  lakes, 
have  mostly  arisen  since  that  time.  Even  the  more 
ancient  parts  of  the  continent  have  been  profoundly 
modified  through  the  incessant  work  of  rain  and  rivers 
and  of  the  waves,  tending  to  wear  down  the  land  sur- 
faces, of  volcanic  outbursts  building  them  up,  and  of 
I  IK-  more  mysterious  agencies  which  raise  or  depress 
vast  stretches  of  mountain  chains  or  even  the  whole 
area  of  a  continent,  and  which  tend  on  the  whole  so  far 
as  we  can  see,  to  restore  or  increase  the  relief  of  the 
continents,  as  the  action  of  the  surface  waters  tends  to 
bring  them  down  to  or  beneath  the  sea  level. 

Alternate  Overflow  and  Emergence  of  Continents.  In 
a  broad  way  these  agencies  of  elevation  and  of  erosion 
have  caused  in  their  age-long  struggle  an  alternation  of 
periods  of  overflow  and  periods  of  continental  emergence 
during  geologic  time.  During  the  periods  of  overflow, 
great  portions  of  the  low-lying  parts  of  the  continents 
were  submerged,  and  formed  extensive  but  compara- 
tively shallow  seas.  The  mountains  through  long 


GEOGRAPHIC  AND  CLIMATIC  CHANGES 


1? 


Fig.   2.— North  America  in  the  Later  Cretacic  Period.     Map  outlines  after 
Schuchert. 

continued  erosion  were  reduced  to  gentle  and  uniform 
slopes  of  comparatively  slight  elevation.  Their  ma- 
terials were  brought  down  by  rivers  to  the  sea-coast, 
and  distributed  as  sedimentary  formations  over  the 


18  DINOSAURS 

shallow  interior  seas  or  along  the  margins  of  the  conti- 
nents. But  this  load  of  sediments,  transferred  from 
the  dry  land  to  the  ocean  margins  and  shallow  seas, 
disturbed  the  balance  of  weight  (isostasy)  which 
normally  keeps  the  continental  platforms  above  the 
level  of  the  ocean  basins  (which  as  shown  by  gravity 
measurement  are  underlain  by  materials  of  higher 
specific  gravity  than  the  continents).  In  due  course  of 
time,  when  the  strain  became  sufficient,  it  was  read- 
justed by  earth  movements  of  a  slowness  proportioned 
to  their  vastness.  These  movements  while  tending 
upon  the  whole  to  raise  the  continents  to  or  sometimes 
beyond  their  former  relief,  did  not  reverse  the  action  of 
erosion  agencies  in  detail,  but  often  produced  new  lines 
or  areas  of  high  elevation. 

Geologic  Periods.  A  geologic  period  is  the  record  of 
one  of  these  immense  and  long  continued  movements  of 
alternate  submergence  and  elevation  of  the  continents. 
It  begins,  therefore,  and  ends  with  a  time  of  emergence, 
and  includes  a  long  era  of  submergence. 

These  epochs  of  elevation  are  accompanied  by  the 
development  of  cold  climates  at  the  poles,  and  else- 
where of  arid  conditions  in  the  interior  of  the  conti- 
nents. The  epochs  of  submergence  are  accompanied 
by  a  warm,  humid  climate,  more  or  less  uniform  from 
the  equator  to  the  poles. 

The  earth  has  very  recently,  in  a  geologic  sense, 
passed  through  an  epoch  of  extreme  continental  eleva- 
tion the  maximum  of  which  was  marked  by  the  "Ice 


GEOGRAPHIC  AND  CLIMATIC  CHANGES  19 

Age."  The  continents  are  still  emerged  for  the  most 
part  almost  to  the  borders  of  the  "continental  shelf" 
which  forms  their  maximum  limit.  And  in  the  icy 
covering  of  Greenland  and  Antarctica  a  considerable 
portion  still  remains  of  the  great  ice-sheets  which  at 
their  maximum  covered  large  parts  of  North  America 
and  Europe.  We  are  now  at  the  beginning  of  a  long 
period  of  slow  erosion  and  subsidence  which,  if  this 
interpretation  of  the  geologic  record  be  correct,  will  in 
the  course  of  time  reduce  the  mountains  to  plains  and 
submerge  great  parts  of  the  lowlands  beneath  the 


AGE       OF      REPTILES 

AGE      OF 
MAMMALS 

TRIASSIC 

JURASSIC 

COMANCHIC 

CRETACIC 

TE  RTI  ARY 

.  .     =    1  million   years  AGE     OF 

The    duration     of    uvijizafion,  upon  fKi's    scale,  would,   be    represented 
by   a   lm<   JZOQ  l'Tlc'1    thick  >  quit*    I'livis/fc/e.    to    the    eye  . 

Fig.  3.— Relative  Length  of  Ages  of  Reptiles,  Mammals  and  Man. 

ocean.  As  compensation  for  the  lesser  extent  of  dry 
land  we  may  look  forward  to  a  more  genial  and  favor- 
able climate  in  the  reduced  areas  that  remain  above 
water. 

Length  of  Geologic  Cycles.  But  these  vast  cycles  of 
geographic  and  climatic  change  will  take  millions  of 
years  to  accomplish  their  course.  The  brief  span  of 
human  life,  or  even  the  few  centuries  of  recorded  civil- 
ization are  far  too  short  to  show  any  perceptible  change 
in  climate  due  to  this  cause.  The  utmost  stretch  of  a 


20  DINOSAURS 

man's  life  will  cover  perhaps  one-two  hundred  thou- 
sandth part  of  a  geologic  period.  The  time  elapsed 
since  the  dawn  of  civilization  is  less  than  a  three-thou- 
sandth part.  Of  the  days  and  hours  of  this  geologic 
year,  our  historic  records  cover  but  two  or  three  minutes, 
our  individual  lives  but  a  fraction  of  a  second.  We  must 
not  expect  to  find  records  of  its  changing  seasons  in 
human  history,  still  less  to  observe  them  personally. 

There  are  indeed  minor  cycles  of  climate  within  this 
great  cycle.  The  great  Ice  Age  through  which  the 
earth  has  so  recently  passed  was  marked  by  alternations 


AGE  OF 


P   R    E     H    I  S-T  0    R  1  C 


u    -    1  thousand  years  The       Sixfy   C  en  far  res   of  Cw/i'zafio 

Upon  tins   scale-  tJ«  keqiWng    of    tht    A<)t   of    Reptilfcs    would     fee 
about   20  fett  ,  its    close,    about    5  feet    to  ihe  Itft    of   tht   diagram . 
Fig.  4.— Relative  Length  of  Prehistoric  and  Historic  Time. 

of  severity  and  mildness  of  climate,  of  advance  and 
recession  of  the  glaciers,  and  within  these  smaller 
cycles  are  minor  alternations  whose  effect  upon  the 
course  of  human  history  has  been  shown  recently  by 
Professor  Huntington  ("  The  Pulse  of  Asia  ") .  But  the 
Kivnt  cycles  of  the  geologic  periods  are  of  a  scope  far 
too  vast  for  their  changes  to  be  perceptible  to  us  except 
through  their  influence  upon  the  course  of  evolution. 

The  Later  Cycles  of  Geologic  Time.     The  Reptilian 
Era  opens  with  a  period  of  extreme  elevation,  which 


GEOGRAPHIC  AND  CLIMATIC  CHANGES  21 

rivalled  that  of  the  Glacial  Epoch  and  was  similarly 
accompanied  by  extensive  glaciation  of  which  some 
traces  are  preserved  to  our  day  in  characteristic  glacial 
boulders,  ice  scratches,  and  till,  imbedded  or  inter- 
stratified  in  the  strata  of  the  Permian  age.  Between 
these  two  extremes  of  continental  emergence,  the 
Permian  and  the  Pleistocene,  we  can  trace  six  cycles  of 
alternate  submergence  and  elevation,  as  shown  in  the 
diagram  (Fig.  5),  representing  the  proportion  of 
North  America  which  is  known  to  have  been  above 
water  during  the  six  geologic  periods  that  intervene. 

From  this  diagram  it  will  appear  that  the  six  cycles 
or  periods  were  by  no  means  equal  in  the  amount  of 
overflow  or  complete  recovery  of  the  drowned  lands. 
The  Cretacic  period  was  marked  by  a  much  more 
extensive  and  long  continued  flooding;  the  great  plains 
west  of  the  Mississippi  were  mostly  under  water  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The  earlier 
overflows  were  neither  so  extensive  nor  so  long  con- 
tinued. The  great  uplift  of  the  close  of  the  Cretacic 
regained  permanently  the  great  central  region  and 
united  East  and  West,  and  the  overflows  of  the  Age  of 
Mammals  were  mostly  limited  to  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Gulf  coasts. 

Sedimentary  Formations.  During  the  epochs  of 
greatest  overflow  great  marine  formations  were  depos- 
ited over  large  areas  of  what  is  now  dry  land.  These 
were  followed  as  the  land  rose  to  sea  level  by  extensive 
marsh  and  delta  formations,  and  these  in  turn  by 


DINOSAURS 


scattered  and  fragmentary  dry  land  deposits  spread  by 
rivers  over  their  flood  plains.  In  the  marine  formations 
are  found  the  fossil  remains  of  the  sea-animals  of  the 
period;  in  the  coast  and  delta  formations  are  the 


AGE        OF        REPTILES 
M  e  s  o  t  o  i  c     Era 

AGE      OF 
MAMM  ALS 
Tertiary  Per.od 

AGE  OF 
MAN 
Quat'y 

Triasstc 
cycle 

Jurassic 
cycle 

Comanc/ii 
cycle 

Cretaetc 
cycle. 

Eogene, 
cycle 

N  cogent 
cycle 

"a  rce.  " 

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-Geologic  Cycles  andstch1fuLand)Area  of  North  America  (after 

remains  of  those  which   inhabited   the  marshes  and 
rests  of  the  coast  regions;  while  the  animals  of  the 
dryland,  of  plains  and  upland,  left  their  remains  in  the 
river-plain  formations. 


GEOGRAPHIC  AND  CLIMATIC  CHANGES  23 

These  last,  however,  fragmentary  and  loose  and  over- 
lying the  rest,  were  the  first  to  be  swept  away  by  erosion 
during  the  periods  of  elevation;  and  of  such  formations 
in  the  Age  of  Reptiles  very  little,  if  anything,  seems  to 
have  been  preserved  to  our  day.  Consequently  we 
know  very  little  about  the  upland  animals  of  those 
times,  if  as  seems  very  probable,  they  were  more  or 
less  different  from  the  animals  of  the  coast-forests  and 
swamps.  The  river-plain  deposits  of  the  Age  of 
Mammals  on  the  other  hand,  are  still  quite  extensive, 
especially  those  of  its  later  epochs,  and  afford  a  fairly 
complete  record  in  some  parts  of  the  continent  of  the 
upland  fauna  of  those  regions. 

Occurrence  of  Dinosaur  Bones.  Dinosaur  bones  are 
found  mostly  in  the  great  delta  formations,  and  since 
those  were  accumulated  chiefly  in  the  early  stages  of 
great  continental  elevations,  it  follows  that  our 
acquaintance  with  Dinosaurs  is  mostly  limited  to  those 
living  at  certain  epochs  during  the  Age  of  Reptiles.  In 
point  of  fact  so  far  as  explorations  have  yet  gone  in  this 
country,  the  Dinosaur  fauna  of  the  close  of  the  Jurassic 
and  beginning  of  the  Comanchic  and  that  of  the 
later  Cretacic  are  the  only  ones  we  know  much  about. 
The  immense  interval  of  time  that  preceded,  and  the 
no  less  vast  stretch  of  time  that  separated  them,  is 
represented  in  the  record  of  Dinosaur  history  by  a 
multitude  of  tracks  and  a  few  imperfect  skeletons 
assigned  to  the  close  of  the  Triassic  period,  and  by  a 
few  fragments  from  formations  which  may  be  inter- 


24  DINOSAURS 

mediate  in  age  between  the  Jurassic-Comanchic  and 
the  late  Cretacic.  Consequently  we  cannot  expect  to 
trace  among  the  Dinosaurs,  the  gradual  evolution  of 
different  races,  as  we  can  do  among  the  quadrupeds  of 
the  Age  of  Mammals. 

Imperfection  of  the  Geologic  Record.  The  Age  of 
Mammals  in  North  America  presents  a  moving  picture 
of  the  successive  stages  in  the  evolution  of  modern 
quadrupeds;  the  Age  of  Reptiles  shows  (broadly  con- 
sidered) two  photographs  representing  the  land  verte- 
brates of  two  long  distant  periods,  as  remote  in  time 
from  each  otlier  as  the  later  one  is  remote  from  the 
present  day.  Of  the  earlier  stages  in  the  evolution  of 
the  Dinosaurs  there  are  but  a  few  imperfect  sketches  in 
this  country;  in  Europe  the  picture  is  more  complete. 
In  the  course  of  time,  as  exploration  progresses,  we  shall 
no  doubt  recover  more  complete  records.  But  probably 
we  shall  never  have  so  complete  a  history  of  the  ter- 
restrial life  of  the  Age  of  Reptiles  as  we  have  of  the  Age 
of  Mammals.  The  records  are  defective,  a  large  part 
of  them  destroyed  or  forever  inaccessible. 


CHAPTER  III. 
KINDS  OF  DINOSAURS. 

COMMON   CHARACTERS   AND   DIFFERENCES   BETWEEN 
THE  VARIOUS  GROUPS. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  attempted  to  point 
out  the  place  in  nature  that  the  Dinosaurs  occupied  and 
the  conditions  under  which  they  lived.  They  were  the 
dominant  land  animals  of  their  time,  just  as  the  quadru- 
peds were  during  the  Age  of  Mammals.  Their  sway 
endured  for  a  long  era,  estimated  at  nine  millions  of 
years,  and  about  three  times  as  long  as  the  period  which 
has  elapsed  since  their  disappearance.  They  survived 
vast  changes  in  geography  and  climate,  and  became 
extinct  through  a  combination  of  causes  not  fully 
understood  as  yet;  probably  the  great  changes  in 
physical  conditions  at  the  end  of  the  Cretacic  period, 
and  the  development  of  mammals  and  birds,  more 
intelligent,  more  active,  and  better  adapted  to  the  new 
conditions  of  life,  were  the  most  important  factors  in 
their  extinction. 

The  Dinosaurs  originated,  so  far  as  we  can  judge,  as 
lizard-like  reptiles  with  comparatively  long  limbs,  long 
tails,  five  toes  on  each  foot,  tipped  with  sharp  claws, 
and  with  a  complete  series  of  sharp  pointed  teeth.  It 
would  seem  probable  that  these  ancestors  were  more 


DINOSAURS 


or  less  bipedal,  and  adapted  to  live  on  dry  land.  They 
were  probably  much  like  the  modern  lizards  in  size, 
appearance  and  habitat:* 

From  this  ancestral  type  the  Dinosaurs  evolved  into 
a  great  variety  of  different  kinds,  many  of  them  of 
gigantic  size,  some  herbivorous,  some  carnivorous;  some 
bipedal,  others  quadrupedal;  many  of  them  protected 
by  various  kinds  of  bony  armor-plates,  or  provided 
with  horns  or  spines;  some  with  sharp  claws,  others 
with  blunted  claws  or  hoofs. 

These  various  kinds  of  Dinosaurs  are  customarily 
grouped  as  follows: 


Duck-  billed  Dinosa 
».  of  Dino.urs.     Scale  about  nineteen 


*If  some  vast  catastrophe  should  today  blot  nut  all  t 
races  including  man,  and  the  birds,  but  leave  thVl  I«r 


KINDS  OF  DINOSAURS 


I.  Carnivorous  Dinosaurs  or  Theropoda.  With  sharp 
pointed  teeth,  sharp  claws;  bipedal,  with  bird-like  hind 
feet,  generally  three-toed;*  the  fore-limbs  adapted  for 
grasping  or  tearing,  but  not  for  support  of  the  body. 


Horned     Din 

TRIC  ERATO  P  S 


ared     Dinosaur 
ANK YLOSAURU  S 


Fig.  7. — Skulls  of  Dinosaurs,  illustrating  the    principal  types  —Anchisaurus 
afteriMarsh,  the  others  from  American  Museum  specimens. 

The  head  is  large,  neck  of  moderate  length,  body  un- 
armored.  The  principal  Dinosaurs  of  this  group  in 
America  are 

Allosaurus,  Ornitholestes — Upper  Jurassic  period. 


"The  ancestral  types  have  four  complete  toes,  but  in  the  true  Thero- 
poda the  inner  digit  is  reduced  to  a  small  incomplete  remnant,  its  claw 
reversed  and  projecting  at  the  back  of  the  foot,  as  in  birds. 


28  DINOSAURS 

Tyrannosaurus,     Deinodon,     Albertosaurus,     Ornith- 
omimus— Upper  Cretacic  period. 

II.  Amphibious    Dinosaurs    or    Sauropoda.     With 
blunt-pointed  teeth  and  blunt  claws,  quadrupedal,  with 
elephant-like  limbs  and  feet,  long  neck  and  small  head. 
Unarmored.     Principal    dinosaurs    of    this    group    in 
America  are  Brontosaurus,  Diplodocus,  Camarasaurus 
t.Moroxaunis)    and    Brachiosaurus,    all    of    the    Upper 
Jurassic  and  Comanchic  periods. 

III.  Beaked    Dinosaurs    or    Predentates.     With    a 
horny  beak  on  the  front  of  the  jaw,  cutting  or  grinding 
teeth  behind  it.     All  herbivorous,  with  pelvis  of  peculiar 
type,  with  hoofs  instead  of  claws,  and  many  genera 
heavily  armored.     Mostly  three  short  toes  on  the  hind 
foot,  four  or  five  on  the  fore  foot.     This  group  com- 
prises animals  of  very  different  proportions  as  follows: 

1.  Iguanodonts.     Bipedal,  unarmored,  with  a  single 
row  of  serrated  cutting  teeth,   three-toed  hind  feet. 
Upper    Jurassic,    Comanchic    and    Cretacic.     Camp- 
tosaurus  is  the  best  known  American  genus. 

2.  Trachodonts  or  Duck-billed  Dinosaurs.     Like  the 
Iguanodonts  but  with  numerous  rows  of  small  teeth  set 
close  together  to  form  a  grinding  surface.     Cretacic 
period.     Trachodon,  Hadrosaurus,  Claosaurus,  Saurolo- 
phus,  Corythosaurus,  etc. 

3.  Stegosaurs  or  Armored  Dinosaurs.     Quadrupedal 
dinosaurs  with  elephantine  feet,  short  neck,  small  head, 
body  and  tail  armored  with  massive  bony  plates  and 
often  with  large  bony  spines.     Teeth  in  a  single  row, 


KINDS  OF  DINOSAURS 


BEAKED     D/NOSAURS 
(TRACHODON) 


AMPHIB/OUS 

(  BRONTOSAURUS) 

Fig.  8. — Hind  Feet  of  Dinosaurs,  to  show  the  three  chief  types  (Theropoda, 
Orthopoda,  Sauropoda). 


30  DINOSAURS 

like  those  of  Iguanodonts.  Stegosaurus  of  the  Upper 
Jurassic,  Ankylosaurus  of  the  Upper  Cretacic. 

4.  Ceratopsian  or  Horned  Dinosaurs.  Quadrupedal 
with  elephantine  feet,  short  neck,  very  large  head  en- 
larged by  an  enormous  bony  frill  covering  the  neck, 
with  a  pair  of  horns  over  the  eyes  and  a  single  horn  in 
front.  Teeth  in  a  single  row,  but  broadened  out  and 
adapted  for  grinding  the  food.  No  body  armor. 
Triceratops  is  the  best  known  type.  Monoclonius, 
Ceratops,  Torosaurus  and  Anchiceratops  are  also  of  this 
group.  All  from  the  Cretacic  period. 

Classification  of  Dinosaurs.  It  is  probable  that  the 
Dinosaurs  are  not  really  a  natural  group  or  order  of 
reptiles,  although  they  have  been  generally  so  con- 
sidered. The  Carnivorous  and  Amphibious  Dinosaurs 
in  spite  of  their  diverse  appearance  and  habits,  are 
rather  nearly  related,  while  the  Beaked  Dinosaurs  form 
a  group  apart,  and  may  be  descendants  of  a  different 
group  of  primitive  reptiles.  These  relations  are  most 
clearly  seen  in  the  construction  of  the  pelvis  (see  fig.  9). 
In  the  first  two  groups  the  pubis  projects  downward  and 
forward  as  it  does  in  the  majority  of  reptiles,  and  the 
ilium  is  a  high  rounded  plate;  while  in  the  others  the 
pelvis  is  of  a  wholly  different  type,  strongly  suggesting 
the  pelvis  of  birds. 

Recent  researches  upon  Triassic  dinosaurs,  especially 
by  the  distinguished  German  savants,  Friedrich  von 
Huene,  Otto  Jaekel  and  the  late  Eberhard  Fraas,  and 
the  discovery  of  more  complete  specimens  of  these 


KINDS  OF  DINOSAURS 


31 


CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS          AMPHIBIOUS     DINOSAURS 
(  TH  E  ROPODA) (SAU  ROPO  OA  ) 


B  E  A  K  E D  D/NOSAUKS       ( P ft  £ DE  N TA TA  ) 


Fig.  9. — Pelves^of  Dinosaurs  illustrating  the  two  chief  types  (Saurischia, 
Ornithischia)  and  their  variations. 


32  DINOSAURS 

animals,  also  clear  up  the  true  relationships  of  these 
primitive  dinosaurs  which  have  mostly  been  referred 
hitherto  to  the  Theropoda  or  Megalosaurians.  The 
following  classification  is  somewhat  more  conservative 
than  the  arrangement  recently  proposed  by  von  Huene. 

ORDER  SAURISCHIA  Seeley. 

Suborder  Coelurosa  uria  von  Huene  (=Compsognatha  Huxley,  Sym- 
phypoda  Cope.) 

Fam.  Podokesauridae        Triassic,  Connecticut. 
"       Hallopodidse  Jurassic,  Colorado. 

Coeluridae  Jurassic  and  Comanchic,  North  America. 

"      Compsognathidae     Jurassic,  Europe. 
Suborder  Pachypodosauria   von  Huene. 

Fam.  Anchisauridae  Triassic,  North  America  and  Europe. 


*.  Europe.- 
Suborder  Theropoda  Marsh  (=Goniopoda  Cope) 
Fara.  Megalosauridae        Jurassic  and  Comanchic. 
Deinodontidae          Cretacic. 
Ornithomimidae       Cretacic,  North  America. 

Suborder   Sauropoda    Marsh    (=Opisthocoelia    Owen,    Cetiosauria 
Seeley.) 

Fam.  Cetiosaurida;      ] 

Morosauridae      [Jurassic  and  Comanchic. 
Diplodocidae       j 

Order  ORNITHISCHIA  Seeley  (=Orthopoda  Cope,  Predentata  Marsh.) 
Suborder  OrnUhopoda  Marsh  (Iguanodontia  Dollo) 
Fam.  Nanosauridae  Jurassic.  Colorado. 

"       Camptosauridae    1  T 

Iguanodontida;     )Jurasslc  and  Comanchic. 

"      Trachodontidae        (=Hadrosaurid{e),  Cretacic. 
Suborder  Stegosaurm  Marsh. 
Fam.  Scelidosauridse   \T 

StegosauridaB      JJurassic  and  Comanchic. 

"       Ankylosauridae        (=Nodosaurida?),  Cretacic 
Suborder  Ceratopsin  Marsh. 

Fam.  Ceratopsidae  Cretacic. 


to  the  Thero- 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS,    ALLOSAU- 
RUS,  TYRANNOSAURUS,  ORNITHOLESTES, 

ETC. 

SUB-ORDER  THEROPODA. 

The  sharp  teeth,  compressed  and  serrated  like  a 
palaeolithic  spear  point,  and  the  powerful  sharp-pointed 
curved  claws  on  the  feet,  prove  the  carnivorous  habits 
of  these  dinosaurs.  The  well-finished  joints,  dense 
texture  of  the  hollow  bones  and  strongly  marked  muscle- 
scars  indicate  that  they  were  active  and  powerful  beasts 
of  prey.  They  range  from  small  slender  animals  up  to 
the  gigantic  Tyrannosaurus  equalling  the  modern 
elephant  in  bulk.  They  were  half  lizard,  half  bird  in 
proportions,  combining  the  head,  the  short  neck  and 
small  fore  limbs  and  long  snaky  tail  of  the  lizard  with 
the  short,  compact  body,  long  powerful  hind  limbs  and 
three-toed  feet  of  the  bird.  The  skin  was  probably 
either  naked  or  covered  with  horny  scales  as  in  lizards 
and  snakes;  at  all  events  it  was  not  armor-plated  as  in 
the  crocodile.*  They  walked  or  ran  upon  the  hind 
legs;  in  many  of  them  the  fore  limbs  are  quite  unfitted 


This  is  still  doubtful  in  Tyrannosaurus.     A  number  of  very  curious 
plates  were  found  with  one  specimen  in  a  quarry.     B.  Brown,  1913. 


DINOSAURS 


for  support  of  the  body  and  must  have  been  used  solely 

in  fighting  or  tearing  their  prey. 

The  huge  size  of  some  of  these  Mesozoic  beasts  of 

prey  finds  no  parallel 
among  their  modern 
analogues.  It  is 
only  among  marine 
animals  that  we  find 
predaceous  types  of 
such  gigantic  size. 
But  among  the  car- 
nivorous dinosaurs 
we  fail  to  find  any 
indications  of  aqua- 
tic or  even  amphibi- 
ous habits.  They 
might  indeed  wade 
in  the  water,  but 
they  could  hardly 
be  at  home  in  it,  for 
they  were  clearly 
not  good  swimmers. 
We  must  suppose 
that  they  were  dry 
land  animals  or  at 


Fig  1  a— Hind  Limb  of  Allosaurus,  Dr  J 
L.  Wortman  standing  to  one  side.  Dr' 
Wortman  is  one  of  the  most  notable  and 
successful  collectors  of  fossil  vertebrates 
and  was  in  charge  of  the  Museum's  field 
work  in  this  department  from  1891-1898. 


most  swamp  dwell- 
ers. 

Dinosaur  Footprints.     The  ancestors  of  the  Thero- 
poda  appear  first  in  the  Triassic  period,  already  of  large 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS  35 

size,  but  less  completely  bipedal  than  their  successors. 
Incomplete  skeletons  have  been  found  in  the  Triassic 
formations  of  Germany*  but  in  this  country  they  are 
chiefly  known  from  the  famous  fossil  footprints  (or 
"bird-tracks"  as  they  were  at  first  thought  to  be), 
found  in  the  flagstone  quarries  at  Turner's  Falls  on  the 
Connecticut  River,  in  the  vicinity  of  Boonton,  New 
Jersey,  and  elsewhere.  These  tracks  are  the  footprints 
of  numerous  kinds  of  dinosaurs,  large  and  small,  mostly 
of  the  carnivorous  group,  which  lived  in  that  region  in 
the  earlier  part  of  the  Age  of  Reptiles,  and  much  has 
been  learned  from  them  as  to  the  habits  of  the  animals 
that  made  them.  The  tracks  ascribed  to  carnivorous 
dinosaurs  run  in  series  with  narrow  tread,  short  or  long 
steps,  here  and  there  a  light  impression  of  tail  or  fore- 
foot and  occasionally  the  mark  of  the  shank  and  pelvis 
when  the  animal  settled  back  and  squatted  down  to  rest 
a  moment.  The  modern  crocodiles  when  they  lift  the 
body  off  the  ground,  waddle  forward  with  the  short 
limbs  wide  apart,  and  even  the  lizards  which  run  on  their 
hind  legs  have  a  rather  wide  tread.  But  these  dino- 
saurs ran  like  birds,  setting  one  foot  nearly  in  front  of 
the  other,  so  that  the  prints  of  right  and  left  feet  are 
nearly  in  a  straight  line.  This  was  on  account  of  their 
greater  length  of  limb,  which  made  it  easy  for  them  to 


*Quite  recently  a  series  of  more  or  less  complete  skeletons  have  been 
secured  from  the  upper  Triassic  (Keuper)  near  Halberstadt  in  Germany. 
They  are  not  true  Megalosaurians,  but  primitive  types  (Pachypodosau- 
ria)  ancestral  to  both  these  and  the  Sauropoda.  Probably  many  of  the 
Connecticut  footprints  were  mad'e  by  animals  of  this  primitive  group. 
Anchisaurus  certainly  belongs  to  it. 


36  DINOSAURS 

swing  the  foot  directly  underneath  the  body  at  each 
step  like  mammals  and  birds,  and  thus  maintain  an  even 
balance,  instead  of  wabbling  from  side  to  side  as  short 
legged  animals  are  compelled  to  do. 

Of  the  animals  that  made  these  innumerable  tracks 
the  actual  remains  found  thus  far  in  this  country  are 
exceedingly  scanty.  Two  or  three  incomplete  skeletons 
of  small  kinds  are  in  the  Yale  Museum,  of  which 
Anchisqurus  is  the  best  known. 

Megahsaurus.  Fragmentary  remains  of  this  huge 
carnivorous  dinosaur  were  found  in  England  nearly  a 
century  ago,  and  the  descriptions  by  Dean  Buckland 
and  Sir  Richard  Owen  and  the  restorations  due  to  the 
imaginative  chisel  of  Waterhouse  Hawkins,  have  made 
it  familar  to  most  English  readers.  Unfortunately  it 
was,  and  still  remains,  very  imperfectly  known.  It  was 
very  closely  related  to  the  American  Allosaurus  and 
unquestionably  similar  in  appearance  and  habits.* 

The  following  extract  is  from  the 
ALLOSAURUS.     American    Museum    Journal    for 
January  1908.** 

"Although  smaller  than  its  huge  contemporary 
Brontosaurus,  this  animal  is  of  gigantic  proportions 
being  34  feet  2  inches  in  length,  and  8  feet  3  inches  high. 

*It  is  evidently  "the  dinosaur"  of  Sir  Conan  Doyle's  "Lost  World" 
but  the  vivid  description  which  the  great  English  novelist  gives  of  its 
appearance  and  habits,  based  probably  upon  the  Hawkins  restoration, 
is  not  at  all  in  accord  with  inferences  from  what  is  now  known  of  these 
animals.  See  p.  44. 

**Allosaurus,  a  carnivorous  Dinosaur,  and  its  Prey.  By  W.  D. 
Matthew.  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  Jour.  Vol.  viii,  pp.  3-5,  pi.  1. 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS 


37 


38  DINOSAURS 

History  of  the  Allosaurus  Skeleton.  "This  rare  and 
finely  preserved  skeleton  was  collected  by  Mr.  F.  F. 
Hubbell  in  October  1879,  in  the  Como  Bluffs  near 
Medicine  Bow,  Wyoming,  the  richest  locality  in 
America  for  dinosaur  skeletons,  and  is  a  part  of  the 
great  collection  of  fossil  reptiles,  amphibians  and  fishes 
gathered  together  by  the  late  Professor  E.  D.  Cope, 
and  presented  to  the  American  Museum  in  1899  by 
President  Jesup. 

"Shortly  after  the  Centennial  Exposition  (1876)  it 
had  been  planned  that  Professor  Cope's  collection  of 
fossils  should  form  part  of  a  great  public  museum  in 
Fail-mount  Park,  Philadelphia,  the  city  undertaking  the 
cost  of  preparing  and  exhibiting  the  specimens,  an 
arrangement  similar  to  that  existing  between  the  Ameri- 
can Museum  and  the  City  of  New  York.* 

"The  plan,  however,  fell  through,  and  the  greater  part 
of  this  magnificent  collection  remained  in  storage  in  the 
basement  of  Memorial  Hall  in  Fairmount  Park,  for  the 
next  twenty  years.  From  time  to  time  Professor  Cope 
removed  parts  of  the  collection  to  his  private  museum 
in  Pine  Street,  for  purposes  of  study  and  scientific 
description.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  had  no  idea 
of  the  perfection  and  value  of  this  specimen.  In  1899 
when  the  collection  was  purchased  from  his  executors 
by  Mr.  Jesup,  the  writer  went  to  Philadelphia  under  the 
instructions  of  Professor  Osborn,  Curator  of  Fossil 
Vertebrates,  to  superintend  the  packing  and  removal  to 

*The  cost  of  preparation  is  now  defrayed  by  the  Museum. 


THE   CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS  39 

the  American  Museum.  At  that  time  the  collection 
made  by  Hubbell  was  still  in  Memorial  Hall,  and  the 
boxes  were  piled  up  just  as  they  came  in  from  the  West, 
never  having  been  unpacked.  Professor  Cope's  assist- 
ant, Mr.  Geismar,  informed  the  writer  that  Hubbell's 
collection  was  mostly  fragmentary  and  not  of  any  great 
value.  Mr.  Hubbell's  letters  from  the  field  unfortu- 
nately were  not  preserved,  but  it  is  likely  that  they  did 
not  make  clear  what  a  splendid  find  he  had  made,  and 
as  some  of  his  earlier  collections  had  been  fragmentary 
and  of  no  great  interest,  the  rest  were  supposed  to  be  of 
the  same  kind. 

"When  the  Cope  Collection  was  unpacked  at  the 
American  Museum,  this  lot  of  boxes,  not  thought  likely 
to  be  of  much  interest,  was  left  until  the  last,  and  not 
taken  in  hand  until  1902  or  1903.  But  when  this  speci- 
men was  laid  out,  it  appeared  that  a  treasure  had  come 
to  light.  Although  collected  by  the  crude  methods  of 
early  days,  it  consisted  of  the  greater  part  of  the  skele- 
ton of  a  single  individual,  with  the  bones  in  wonder- 
fully fine  preservation,  considering  that  they  had  been 
buried  for  say  eight  million  years.  They  were  dense 
black,  hard  and  uncrushed,  even  better  preserved  and 
somewhat  more  complete  than  the  two  fine  skeletons 
of  Allosaurus  from  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  the  greatest 
treasures  that  this  famous  quarry  had  supplied.  The 
great  carnivorous  dinosaurs  are  much  rarer  than  the 
herbivorous  kinds,  and  these  three  skeletons  are  the 
most  complete  that  have  ever  been  found.  In  all  the 


40  DINOSAURS 

years  of  energetic  exploration  that  the  late  Professor 
Marsh  devoted  to  searching  for  dinosaurs  in  the  Jurassic 
and  Cretaceous  formations  of  the  West,  he  did  not  ob- 
tain any  skeletons  of  carnivorous  kinds  anywhere  near 
as  complete  as  these,  and  their  anatomy  was  in  many 
respects  unknown  or  conjectural.  By  comparison  of 
the  three  Allosaurus  skeletons  with  one  another  and 
with  other  specimens  of  carnivorous  dinosaurs  of 
smaller  size  in  this  and  other  museums,  particularly  in 
the  National  Museum  and  the  Kansas  University 
Museum,  we  have  been  able  to  reconstruct  the  missing 
parts  of  the  Cope  specimen  with  very  little  possibility 
of  serious  error. 

Evidence  for  Combining  and  Posing  this  Mount.  "An 
incomplete  specimen  of  Brontosaurus,  found  by  Doctor 
Wortman  and  Professor  W.  C.  Knight  of  the  American 
Museum  Expedition  of  1897,  had  furnished  interesting 
data  as  to  the  food  and  habits  of  Allosaurus,  which  were 
confirmed  by  several  other  fragmentary  specimens 
obtained  later  in  the  Bone-Cabin  Quarry.  In  this 
Brontosaurus  skeleton  several  of  the  bones,  especially 
the  spines  of  the  tail  vertebrae,  when  found  in  the  rock, 
looked  as  if  they  had  been  scored  and  bitten  off,  as 
though  by  some  carnivorous  animal  which  had  either 
attacked  the  Brontosaurus  when  alive,  or  had  feasted 
upon  the  carcass.  When  the  Allosaurus  jaw  was  com- 
pared with  these  score  marks,  it  was  found  to  fit  them 
exactly,  the  spacing  of  the  scratches  being  the  same  as 
the  spacing  of  the  teeth.  Moreover,  on  taking  out  the 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS  41 

Brontosaurus  vertebrae  from  the  quarry,  a  number  of 
broken  off  teeth  of  Allosaurus  were  found  lying  beside 
them.  As  no  other  remains  of  Allosaurus  or  any  other 
animal  were  intermingled  with  the  Brontosaurus  skele- 
ton, the  most  obvious  explanation  was  that  these  teeth 
were  broken  off  by  an  Allosaurus  while  devouring  the 
Brontosaurus  carcass.  Many  of  the  bones  of  other 
herbivorous  dinosaurs  found  in  the  Bone-Cabin  Quarry 
were  similarly  scored  and  bitten  off,  and  the  teeth  of 
Allosaurus  were  also  found  close  to  them. 

"With  these  data  at  hand  the  original  idea  was  con- 
ceived of  combining  these  two  skeletons,  both  from  the 
same  formation  and  found  within  a  few  miles  of  each 
other,  to  represent  what  must  actually  have  happened 
to  them  in  the  remote  Jurassic  period,  and  mount  the 
Allosaurus  skeleton  standing  over  the  remains  of  a 
Brontosaurus  in  the  attitude  of  feeding  upon  its  carcass. 
Some  modifications  were  made  in  the  position  to  suit 
the  exigencies  of  an  open  mount,  and  to  accommodate 
the  pose  to  the  particular  action ;  the  head  of  the  animal 
was  lifted  a  little,  one  hind  foot  planted  upon  the  car- 
cass, while  the  other,  resting  upon  the  ground  bears 
most  of  the  weight.  The  fore  feet,  used  in  these 
animals  only  for  fighting  or  for  tearing  their  prey,  not 
for  support,  are  given  characteristic  attitudes,  and  the 
whole  pose  represents  the  Allosaurus  devouring  the 
carcass  and  raising  head  and  fore  foot  in  a  threatening 
manner  as  though  to  drive  away  intruders.  The 
balance  of  the  various  parts  was  carefully  studied  and 


42  DINOSAURS 

adjusted  under  direction  of  the  curator.  The  prepara- 
tion and  mounting  of  the  specimen  were  done  by  Mr. 
Adam  Hermann,  head  preparator,  and  his  assistants, 
especially  Messrs.  Falkenbach  and  Lang. 

"As  now  exhibited  in  the  Dinosaur  Hall,  this  group 
gives  to  the  imaginative  observer  a  most  vivid  picture 
of  a  characteristic  scene  in  that  bygone  age,  millions  of 
years  ago,  when  reptiles  were  the  lords  of  creation,  and 


Fig.  12. — Restoration  of  Allosaurus  by  C.  R.  Kni 


'Nature,  red  in  tooth  and  claw'  had  lost  none  of  her 
primitive  savagery,  and  the  era  of  brute  force  and 
ferocity  showed  little  sign  of  the  gradual  amelioration 
which  was  to  come  to  pass  in  future  ages  through  the 
predominance  of  superior  intelligence." 

Appearance  and  Habits  of  Allosaurus.  A  study  of 
the  mechanism  of  the  Allosaurus  skeleton  shows  us  in 
the  first  place  that  the  animal  is  balanced  on  the  hind 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS  43 

limbs,  the  long  heavy  tail  making  an  adequate  counter- 
poise for  the  short  compact  body  and  head.  The  hind 
limbs  are  nine  feet  in  length  when  extended,  about  equal 
to  the  length  of  the  body  and  neck,  and  the  bones  are 
massively  proportioned.  When  the  thigh  bone  is  set 
in  its  normal  position,  as  indicated  by  the  position  of 
the  scars  and  processes  for  attachment  of  the  principal 
muscles  (see  under  Brontosaurus  for  the  method  used 
to  determine  this),  the  knee  bends  forward  as  in  mam- 
mals and  birds,  not  outward  as  in  most  modern  reptiles. 
The  articulations  of  the  foot  bones  show  that  the  animal 
rested  upon  the  ends  of  the  metapodials,  as  birds  and 
many  mammals  do,  not  upon  the  sole  of  the  foot  like 
crocodiles  or  lizards.  The  flat  vertebral  joints  show 
that  the  short  compact  body  was  not  as  flexible  as  the 
longer  body  of  crocodiles  or  lizards,  in  which  the  artic- 
ulations are  of  the  ball  and  socket  type  showing  that 
in  them  this  region  was  very  flexible.  The  tail  also 
shows  a  limited  flexibility.  It  could  not  be  curled  or 
thrown  over  the  back,  but  projected  out  behind  the 
animal,  swinging  from  side  to  side  or  up  and  down  as 
much  as  was  needed  for  balance.  The  curvature  of  the 
ribs  shows  that  the  body  was  narrow  and  deep,  unlike 
the  broad  flattened  body  of  the  crocodile  or  the  less 
flattened  but  still  broad  body  of  the  lizard.  The  loose 
hung  jaw,  articulated  far  back,  shows  by  the  set  of  its 
muscles  that  it  was  capable  of  an  enormous  gape; 
while  in  the  skull  there  is  evidence  of  a  limited  move- 
ment of  the  upper  jaw  on  the  cranial  portion,  intended 


44  DINOSAURS 

probably  to  assist  in  the  swallowing  of  large  objects, 
like  the  double  jointed  jaw  of  a  snake. 

As  to  the  nature  of  the  skin  we  have  no  exact  knowl- 
edge. We  may  be  sure  that  it  had  no  bony  armor  like 
the  crocodile,  for  remains  of  any  such  armor  could  not 
fail  to  be  preserved  with  the  skeletons,  as  it  always  is  in 
fossil  crocodiles  or  turtles.  Perhaps  it  was  scaly  like 
the  skin  of  lizards  and  snakes,  for  the  horny  scales  of 
the  body  are  not  preserved  in  fossil  skeletons  of  these 
reptiles.  But  if  so  we  might  expect  from  the  analogy 
of  the  lizard  that  the  scales  of  the  head  would  be  ossified 
and  preserved  in  the  fossil;  and  there  is  nothing  of  this 
kind  in  the  Carnivorous  Dinosaurs.  We  can  exclude 
feathers  from  consideration,  for  these  dinosaurs  have 
no  affinities  to  birds,  and  there  is  no  evidence  for 
feathers  in  any  dinosaur.  Probably  the  best  evidence 
is  that  of  the  Trachodon  or  duck-billed  dinosaur  al- 
though this  animal  was  but  distantly  related  to  the 
Allosaurus.  In  Trachodon  (see  p.  94),  we  know  that 
the  skin  bore  neither  feathers  nor  overlapping  scales 
but  had  a  curiously  patterned  mosaic  of  tiny  polygonal 
plates  and  was  thin  and  quite  flexible.  Some  such 
type  of  skin  as  this,  in  default  of  better  evidence,  we 
may  ascribe  to  the  Allosaurus. 

As  to  its  probable  habits,  it  is  safe  to  infer  (see  p.  33), 
that  it  was  predaceous,  active  and  powerful,  and 
adapted  to  terrestrial  life.  Its  methods  of  attack  and 
combat  must  have  been  more  like  those  of  modern 
reptiles  than  the  more  intelligent  methods  of  the 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS 


45 


mammalian  carnivore.  The  brain  cast  of  Allosaurus 
indicates  a  brain  of  similar  type  and  somewhat  inferior 
grade  to  that  of  the  modern  crocodile  or  lizard,  and  far 
below  the  bird  or  mammal  in  intelligence.  The  keen 
sense  of  smell  of  the  mammal,  the  keen  vision  of  the 
bird,  the  highly  developed  reasoning  power  of  both, 
were  absent  in  the  dinosaur  as  in  the  lizard  or  crocodile. 


Fig.   13.— View  in  the  Hell  Creek  badlands  in  central  Montana,  where  the 
Tyrannosaurus  skeleton  was  found. 

We  may  imagine  the  Allosaurus  lying  in  wait,  watching 
his  prey  until  its  near  approach  stimulates  him  into  a 
semi-instinctive  activity;  then  a  sudden  swift  rush,  a 
fierce  snap  of  the  huge  jaws  and  a  savage  attack  with 
teeth  and  claws  until  the  victim  is  torn  in  pieces  or 
swallowed  whole.  But  the  stealthy,  persistent  tracking 
of  the  cat  or  weasel  tribe,  the  intelligent  generalship  of 


46  DINOSAURS 

the  wolf  pack,  the  well  planned  attack  at  the  most  vulner- 
able point  in  the  prey,  characteristic  of  all  the  preda- 
ceous  mammals,  would  be  quite  impossible  to  the  dino- 
saur. By  watching  the  habits  of  modern  reptiles  we 
may  gain  a  much  better  idea  of  his  capacities  and 
limitations  than  if  we  judge  only  from  the  efficiency  of 
his  teeth  and  claws,  and  forget  the  inferior  intelligence 
that  animated  these  terrible  weapons. 

The  "Tyrant    Saurian"   as 

TYRANNOSAURUS.  Professor  Osborn  has  named 
him,  was  the  climax  of  evolu- 
tion of  the  giant  flesh-eating  dinosaurs.  It  reached  a 
length  of  forty-seven  feet,  and  in  bulk  must  have 
equalled  the  mammoth  or  the  mastodon  or  the  largest 
living  elephants.  The  massive  hind  limbs,  supporting 
t  IK-  whole  weight  of  the  body,  exceeded  the  limbs  of  the 
great  proboscideans  in  bulk,  and  in  a  standing  position 
the  animal  was  eighteen  to  twenty  feet  high,  as  against 
twelve  for  the  largest  African  elephants  or  the  southern 
mammoth.  The  head  (see  frontispiece)  is  4  feet  3 
inches  long,  3  ft.  4  inches  deep,  and  2  ft.  9  inches 
wide;  the  long  deep  powerful  jaws  set  with  teeth  from 
3  to  6  inches  long  and  an  inch  wide.  To  this  powerful 
armament  was  added  the  great  sharp  claws  of  the  hind 
feet,  and  probably  the  fore  feet,  curved  like  those  of 
eagles,  but  six  or  eight  inches  in  length. 

During  ten  years  explorations  in  the  Western  Cretace- 
ous formations,  Mr.  Brown  has  secured  for  the  Museum 
three  skeletons  of  this  magnificent  dinosaur,  incom- 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS 


47 


plete,  but  finely  preserved.  The  first,  found  in  1900, 
included  the  jaws,  a  large  part  of  backbone  and  ribs, 
and  some  limb  bones.  The  second  included  most  of 
skull  and  jaws,  backbone,  ribs  and  pelvis  and  the  hind 
limbs  and  feet,  but  not  tail.  The  third  consisted  of  a 
perfect  skull  and  jaws,  the  backbone,  ribs,  pelvis  and 
nearly  all  of  the  tail,  but  no  limbs.  From  these  three 


Fig.  14. — Quarry  from  which  the  Tyrannosaurus  skeleton  was  taken. 
American  Museum  camp  in  foreground. 

specimens  it  has  been  possible  to  reconstruct  the  entire 
skeleton.  The  exact  construction  of  the  fore  feet  is 
the  only  doubtful  part.  The  fore-limb  is  very  small 
relatively  to  the  huge  size  of  the  animal,  but  probably 
was  constructed  much  as  in  the  Allosaurus  with  two  or 
three  large  curved  claws,  the  inner  claw  opposing  the 
others. 


48  DINOSAURS 

The  missing  parts  of  the  two  best  skeletons  have  been 
restored,  and  with  the  help  of  two  small  models  of  the 
skeleton,  a  group  has  been  made  ready  for  mounting  as 
the  central  piece  of  the  proposed  Cretaceous  Dinosaur 
Hall.  One  of  the  skeletons  is  temporarily  placed  in  the 
centre  of  the  Quaternary  Hall,  space  for  it  in  the  present 
Dinosaur  Hall  being  lacking.  Following  is  Professor 
Osborn's  description  of  the  preparation  of  this  group:* 

"The  mounting  of  these  two  skeletons  presents 
mechanical  problems  of  very  great  difficulty.  The  size 
and  weight  of  the  various  parts  are  enormous.  The 
height  of  the  head  in  the  standing  position  reaches  from 
18  to  20  feet  above  the  ground;  the  knee  joint  alone 
reaches  6  feet  above  the  ground.  All  the  bones  are 
massive;  the  pelvis,  femur  and  skull  are  extremely 
heavy.  Experience  with  Brontosaurus  and  with  other 
large  dinosaurs  proves  that  it  is  impossible  to  design  a 
metallic  frame  in  the  right  pose  in  advance  of  assembling 
the  parts.  Even  a  scale  restoration  model  of  the  animal 
as  a  whole  does  not  obviate  the  difficulty. 

"Accordingly  in  preparing  to  mount  Tyrannosaurus 
for  exhibition  a  new  method  has  been  adopted,  namely, 
to  prepare  a  scale  model  of  every  bone  in  the  skeleton  and 
mount  this  small  skeleton  with  flexible  joints  and  parts 
so  that  all  studies  and  experiments  as  to  pose  can  be 
made  with  the  models. 


*Tyrannosaurus,  Restoration  and  Model  of  the  Skeleton.  By 
Henry  Fairfield  Osborn.  Bull.  Amer.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.,  1913,  vol. 
xxxn,  art.  iv,  pp.  91-92. 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS  49 

"This  difficult  and  delicate  undertaking  was  entrusted 
to  Mr.  Erwin  Christman  of  the  artistic  staff  of  the 
Department  of  Vertebrate  Palaeontology  of  the  Mu- 
seum, who  has  prepared  two  very  exact  models  to  a 
one-sixth  scale,  representing  our  two  skeletons  of 
Tyrannosaurus  rex,  which  fortunately  are  of  exactly 
the  same  size.  A  series  of  three  experiments  by  Mr. 
Christman  on  the  pose  of  Tyrannosaurus,  under  the 


Fig.  15. — Model  of  Tyrannosaurus  group  for  the  Cretaceous  Dinosaur  Hall. 

direction  of  the  author  and  Curator  Matthew,  were  not 
satisfactory.  The  advice  of  Mr.  Raymond  L.  Ditmars, 
Curator  of  Reptiles  in  the  New  York  Zoological  Park, 
was  sought  and  we  thus  obtained  the  fourth  pose,  which 
is  shown  in  the  photographs  published  herewith. 

"The  fourth  pose  or  study,  for  the  proposed  full  sized 
mount,  is  that  of  two  reptiles  of  the  same  size  attracted 
to  the  same  prey.  One  reptile  is  crouching  over  its 
prey  (which  is  represented  by  a  portion  of  a  skeleton). 


50  DINOSAURS 

The  object  of  this  depressed  pose  is  to  bring  the  per- 
fectly preserved  skull  and  pelvis  very  near  the  ground 
within  easy  reach  of  the  visiting  observer.  The 
second  reptile  is  advancing,  and  attains  very  nearly 
the  full  height  of  the  animal.  The  general  effect  of  this 
group  is  the  best  that  can  be  had  and  is  very  realistic, 
particularly  the  crouching  figure.  A  fifth  study  will 
embody  some  further  changes.  The  upright  figure  is 
not  well  balanced  and  will  be  more  effective  with  the 
feet  closer  together,  the  legs  straighter  and  the  body 
more  erect.  These  reptiles  have  a  series  of  strong 
abdominal  ribs  not  shown  in  the  models.  The  fourth 
position  places  the  pelvis  in  an  almost  impossible 
position  as  will  be  noted  from  the  ischium  and  pubis. 

"The  lateral  view  of  this  fourth  pose  represents  the 
animals  just  prior  to  the  convulsive  single  spring  and 
tooth  grip  which  distinguishes  the  combat  of  reptiles 
from  that  of  all  mammals,  according  to  Mr.  Ditmars. 

"The  rear  view  of  the  standing  skeleton  displays  the 
peculiarly  avian  structure  of  the  iliac  junction  with  the 
sacral  plate,  characteristic  of  these  very  highly  special- 
ized dinosaurs,  also  the  marked  reduction  of  the  upper 
end  of  the  median  metatarsal  bone,  which  formerly 
was  believed  to  be  peculiar  to  Ornithomimus." 

This  model  of  the  group  is  on  exhibition  with  the 
mounted  skeleton. 

As  compared  with  its  predecessor  Allosaurus,  the 
Tyrannosaurus  is  much  more  massively  proportioned 
throughout.  The  skull  is  more  solid,  the  jaws  much 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS 


51 


52  DINOSAURS 

deeper  and  more  powerful,  the  fore  limb  much  smaller, 
the  tail  shorter,  the  hind  limb  straighter  and  the  foot 
bones  more  compacted  so  that  the  animal  was  more 
strictly  "digitigrade,"  approaching  the  ostriches  more 
closely  in  this  particular. 

This  animal  probably  reached  the  maximum  of  size 
and  of  development  of  teeth  and  claws  of  which  its 
type  of  animal  mechanism  was  capable.  Its  bulk 
precluded  quickness  and  agility.  It  must  have  been 
designed  to  attack  and  prey  upon  the  ponderous  and 
slow  moving  Horned  and  Armored  Dinosaurs  with 
which  its  remains  are  found,  and  whose  massive  cuirass 
and  weapons  of  defense  are  well  matched  with  its  teeth 
and  claws.  The  momentum  of  its  huge  body  involved 
a  seemingly  slow  and  lumbering  action,  an  inertia  of 
its  movements,  difficult  to  start  and  difficult  to  shift 
or  to  stop.  Such  movements  are  widely  different  from 
the  agile  swiftness  which  we  naturally  associate  with  a 
beast  of  prey.  But  an  animal  which  exceeds  an 
average  elephant  in  bulk,  no  matter  what  its  habits, 
is  compelled  by  the  laws  of  mechanics  to  the  ponderous 
movements  appropriate  to  its  gigantic  size.  These 
movements,  directed  and  controlled  by  a  reptilian 
brain,  must  needs  be  largely  automatic  and  instinctive. 
We  cannot  doubt  indeed  that  the  Carnivorous  Din- 
osaurs developed,  along  with  their  elaborately  perfected 
mechanism  for  attack,  an  equally  elaborate  series  of 
instincts  guiding  their  action  to  effective  purpose;  and 
a  complex  series  of  automatic  responses  to  the  stimulus 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS  53 

afforded  by  the  sight  and  action  of  their  prey  might 
very  well  mimic  intelligent  pursuit  and  attack,  always 
with  certain  limits  set  by  the  inflexible  character  of  such 
automatic  adjustments.  But  no  animal  as  large  as 
Tyrannosaurus  could  leap  or  spring  upon  another,  and 
its  slow  stride  quickening  into  a  swift  resistless  rush, 
might  well  end  in  unavoidable  impalement  upon  the 
great  horns  of  Triceratops,  futile  weapons  against  a 
small  and  active  enemy,  but  designed  no  doubt  to 
meet  just  such  attacks  as  these.  A  true  picture  of 
these  combats  of  titans  of  the  ancient  world  we  cannot 
draw;  perhaps  we  will  never  be  able  to  reconstruct  it. 
But  the  above  considerations  may  serve  to  show  how 
widely  it  would  differ  from  the  pictures  based  upon 
any  modern  analogies. 

One  may  well  inquire  why  it  is  that  no  such  gigantic 
carnivora  have  evolved  among  the  mammalian  land 
animals.  The  largest  predaceous  quadrupeds  living 
today  are  the  lion  and  tiger.  The  bears  although  some 
of  them  are  much  larger,  are  not  generally  carnivorous, 
except  for  the  polar  bear,  which  is  partly  aquatic,  prey- 
ing chiefly  upon  seals  and  fish.  There  are  indeed 
carnivorous  whales  of  gigantic  size,  but  no  very  large 
land  carnivore.  There  were,  it  is  true,  during  the 
Tertiary  and  Pleistocene,  lions  and  other  carnivores 
considerably  larger  than  the  living  species.  But  none 
of  them  attained  the  size  of  their  largest  herbivorous 
contemporaries,  or  even  approached  it.  Among  the 
dinosaurs  on  the  other  hand  we  find  that — setting 


54  DINOSAURS 

aside  Brontosaurus  and  its  allies  as  aquatic — the 
predaceous  kinds  equalled  or  exceeded  the  largest  of 
the  herbivorous  sorts.  The  difference  is  striking,  and 
it  does  not  seem  likely  that  it  is  merely  accidental. 

The  explanation  lies  probably  in  the  fact  that  the 
large  herbivorous  mammals  are  much  more  intelligent 
and  active,  and  would  be  able  to  use  their  weapons  of 
defense  so  as  to  defy  the  attacks  of  relatively  slow 
moving  giant  beasts  of  prey,  as  they  do  also  the  more 
active  but  less  powerful  assaults  of  smaller  ones.  The 
elephant  or  the  rhinoceros  is  in  fact  practically  immune 
from  the  attacks  of  carnivora,  and  would  still  be  so 
were  the  carnivora  to  increase  in  size.  The  large 
modern  carnivora  prey  upon  herbivores  of  medium  or 
smaller  size,  which  they  are  active  enough  to  surprise 
or  run  down.  Carnivora  of  much  larger  size  would  be 
too  slow  and  heavy  in  movements  to  catch  small  prey, 
while  the  larger  herbivores  by  intelligent  use  of  their 
defensive  weapons  could  still  fend  them  off  successfully. 
In  consequence  giant  carnivores  would  find  no  field  for 
action  in  the  Cenozoic  world,  and  hence  they  have  not 
been  evolved. 

But  the  giant  herbivorous  dinosaurs,  well  armed  or 
well  defended  though  they  were,  had  not  the  intelligence 
to  use  those  weapons  effectively  under  all  circum- 
stances. Thus  they  might  be  successfully  attacked, 
at  least  sometimes,  by  the  powerful  although  slow  mov- 
ing Megalosaurians. 

The  suggestion  has  also  been  made  that  these  giant 


THE   CARNIVOROUS   DINOSAURS  55 

carnivores  were  carrion-eaters  rather  than  truly  pre- 
daceous.  The  hypothesis  can  hardly  be  effectively 
supported  nor  attacked.  It  is  presented  as  a  possible 
alternate. 

Albertosaurus.  Closely  allied  to  the  Tyrannosaurus 
but  smaller,  about  equal  in  size  to  Allosaurus,  was  the 
Albertosaurus  of  the  Edmonton  formation  in  Canada. 
It  is  somewhat  older  than  the  Tyrannosaur  although 
still  of  the  late  Cretacic  period,  and  may  have  been 
ancestral  to  it.  A  fine  series  of  limbs  and  feet  as  also 
skull,  tail,  etc.,  are  in  the  Museum's  collections.  At  or 
about  this  time  carnivorous  dinosaurs  of  slightly 
smaller  size  are  known  to  have  inhabited  New  Jersey; 
a  fragmentary  skeleton  of  one  secured  by  Professor 
Cope  in  1869  was  described  as  Laelaps  (=Dryptosau- 
rus)* 

Orniiholestes.  In  contrast  with  the  Allosaurus  and 
Tyrannosaurus  this  skeleton  represents  the  smaller  and 
more  agile  carnivorous  dinosaurs  which  preyed  upon 
the  lesser  herbivorous  reptiles  of  the  period.  These 
little  dinosaurs  were  probably  common  during  all  the 
Age  of  Reptiles,  much  as  the  smaller  quadrupeds  are 
today,  but  skulls  or  skeletons  are  rarely  found  in  the 
formations  known  to  us.  The  Anchisaurus,  Podokesau- 
rus  and  other  genera  of  the  Triassic  Period  have  left 
innumerable  tracks  upon  the  sandy  shales  of  the 
Newark  formation,  but  only  two  or  three  skeletons  are 


*Since  these  lines  were  written  the  Museum  has  secured  finely  pre- 
served skeletons  of  two  or  more  kinds  of  Carnivorous  Dinosaurs  from 
the  Belly  River  formation  in  Canada. 


56  DINOSAURS 

known.  A  cast  of  one  of  them  is  exhibited  here.  The 
original  is  preserved  in  the  Yale  Museum.  In  the 
succeeding  Jurassic  Period  we  have  the  Compsognathus, 
smallest  of  known  dinosaurs,  and  this  Ornitholestes 
some  six  feet  long.  A  cast  of  the  Compsognathus  skele- 
ton is  shown,  the  original  found  in  the  lithographic  lime- 
stone of  Solenhofen  is  preserved  in  the  Munich  Mu- 
seum. The  Ornitholestes  is  from  the  Bone-Cabin 


Fig.  17.— Skeleton  of  Ornitholestes  a  small  carnivorous  dinosaur  of  the 
Jurassic  period.     American  Museum  No.  619. 

Quarry  in  Wyoming.  The  forefoot  with  its  long 
slender  digits  is  supposed  to  have  been  adapted  for 
grasping  an  active  and  elusive  prey,  and  the  name 
(Ornitho-lestes=b{rd-robber)  indicates  that  that  prey 
may  sometimes  have  been  the  primitive  birds  which 
were  its  contemporaries.  In  the  Cretacic  Period, 
there  were  also  small  and  medium  sized  carnivorous 
dinosaurs,  contemporary  with  the  gigantic  kinds;  a 
complete  skeleton  of  Ornithomimus  at  the  entrance 


THE    CARNIVOROUS   DINOSAURS 


57 


to  the  Dinosaur  Hall  finely  illustrates  this  group.  In 
appearance  most  of  these  small  dinosaurs  must  have 
suggested  long-legged  bipedal  lizards,  running  and 
walking  on  their  hind  limbs,  with  the  long  tail  stretched 
out  behind  to  balance  the  body.  From  what  we  know 
of  their  tracks  it  seems  that  they  walked  or  ran  with 


Fig.  18. — Restoration  of  Ornithokstes,  by  C.  R.  Knight  under  direction 
of  Professor  Osborn. 

a  narrow  treadway,  the  footsteps  almost  in  the  middle 
line  of  progress.  They  did  not  hop  like  perching  birds, 
nor  did  they  waddle  like  most  living  reptiles.  Occasion- 
ally the  tail  or  fore  feet  touched  the  ground  as  they 
walked;  and  when  they  sat  down,  they  rested  on  the 


58  DINOSAURS 

end  of  the  pubic  bones  and  on  the  tail.  So  much  we 
can  infer  from  the  footprint  impressions.  The  general 
appearance  is  shown  in  the  restorations  of  Ornitholestes, 
Compsognathus  and  Anchisaurus  by  Charles  Knight. 

Ornithomimus.  The  skeleton  of  this  animal  from  the 
Cretacic  of  Alberta  was  found  by  the  Museum 
expedition  of  1914.  It  is  exceptionally  complete,  and 
has  been  mounted  as  a  panel,  in  position  as  it  lay  in  the 
rock,  and  with  considerable  parts  of  the  original  sand- 
stone matrix  still  adherent.  The  long  slender  limbs, 
long  neck,  small  head  and  toothless  jaws  are  all  sin- 
gularly bird-like,  and  afford  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
Tyrannosaurus.  At  the  time  of  writing,  its  adapta- 
tion and  relationships  have  not  yet  been  thoroughly 
investigated. 


THE    CARNIVOROUS    DINOSAURS 


59 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE     AMPHIBIOUS     DINOSAURS,     BRONTO- 
SAURUS,  DIPLODOCUS,  ETC. 

SUB-ORDER  OPISTHOCCELIA  (CETIOSAURIA 
OR  SAUROPODA). 

These  were  the  Giant  Reptiles  par-excellence,  for  all 
of  them  were  of  enormous  size,  and  some  were  by  far 
the  largest  of  all  four-footed  animals,  exceeded  in  bulk 
only  by  the  modern  whales.  In  contrast  to  the  car- 
nivorous dinosaurs  these  are  quadrupedal,  with  very 
small  head,  blunt  teeth,  long  giraffe-like  neck,  elephant- 
ine body  and  limbs,  long  massive  tail  prolonged  at  the 
tip  into  a  whip-lash  as  in  the  lizards.  Like  the  ele- 
phant they  have  five  short  toes  on  each  foot,  probably 
buried  in  life  in  a  large  soft  pad,  but  the  inner  digits 
bear  large  claws,  blunt  like  those  of  turtles,  one  in  the 
fore  foot,  three  in  the  hind  foot. 

To  this  group  belong  the  Brontosaurus  and  Diplo- 
docus,  the  Camarasaurus,  Morosaurus  and  other  less 
known  kinds.  All  of  them  lived  during  the  late 
Jurassic  and  Comanchic  ("Lower  Cretaceous")  and 
belong  to  the  older  of  the  two  principal  Dinosaur 
faunas.  They  were  contemporaries  of  the  Allosaurus 
and  Megalosaurus,  the  Stegosaurus  arid  Iguanodon, 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS 


i 
I 


i 

li 

QS 
11 


62  DINOSAURS 

but  unlike  the  Carnivorous  and  Beaked  Dinosaurs  they 
became  wholly  extinct  before  the  Upper  or  true  Cre- 
tacic,  and  left  no  relatives  to  take  part  in  the  final 
epoch  of  expansion  and  prosperity  of  the  dinosaurian 
race  at  the  close  of  the  Reptilian  era. 

The  following   description   of 

BRONTOSAURUS.     the  Brontosaurus  skeleton  in  the 
American  Museum  was  first  pub- 
lished in  the  American  Museum  Journal  of  April,  1905  :* 

"The  Brontosaurus  skeleton,  the  principal  feature  of 
the  hall,  is  sixty-six  feet  eight  inches  long.  (The  weight 
of  the  animal  when  alive  is  estimated  by  W.  K.  Gregory 
at  38  tons).  About  one-third  of  the  skeleton  including 
the  skull  is  restored  in  plaster  modelled  or  cast  from 
other  incomplete  skeletons.  The  remaining  two-thirds 
belong  to  one  individual,  except  for  a  part  of  the  tail, 
one  shoulder-blade  and  one  hind  limb,  supplied  from 
another  skeleton  of  the  same  species. 

"The  skeleton  was  discovered  by  Mr.  Walter  Granger 
of  the  Museum  expedition  of  1898,  about  nine  miles 
north  of  Medicine  Bow,  Wyoming.  It  took  the  whole 
of  the  succeeding  summer  to  extract  it  from  the  rock, 
pack  it,  and  ship  it  to  the  Museum.  Nearly  two  years 
were  consumed  in  removing  the  matrix,  piecing  to- 
gether and  cementing  the  brittle  and  shattered  petrified 
bone,  strengthening  it  so  that  it  would  bear  handling, 
and  restoring  the  missing  parts  of  the  bones  in  tinted 


*The  mounted  Skeleton  of  Brontosaurus,  bv  W.  D.  Matthew,  Amer. 
Mus.  Jour.  Vol.  v,  pp.  63-70,  figs.  1-5. 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS 


63 


Fig.  21. -Excavating  the  Brontosaurus  skeleton.  The  upper  photograph 
shows  the  anterior  ribs  of  one  side  still  lying  in  position.  The 
backbone  is  being  prepared  for  removal,  the  sections  each  contain 
ing  three  vertebrae,  partly  cased  in  plaster  and  burlap  (see  chapter 
XI.  The  lower  photograph  shows  a  later  stage  of  progress,  the 
blocks  being  undercut  and  nearly  ready  to  turn  over  and  incase 
the  under  side.  Strips  of  wood  have  been  pasted  into  each  section 
to  strengthen  it. 


64  DINOSAURS 

plaster.  The  articulation  and  mounting  of  the  skeleton 
and  modelling  of  the  missing  bones  took  an  even  longer 
time,  so  that  it  was  not  until  February,  1905,  that  the 
Brontosaurus  was  at  last  ready  for  exhibition. 

"  It  will  appear,  therefore,  that  the  collection,  prepar- 
ation and  mounting  of  this  gigantic  fossil  has  been  a 
task  of  extraordinary  difficulty.  No  museum  has  ever 
before  attempted  to  mount  so  large  a  fossil  skeleton, 
and  the  great  weight  and  fragile  character  of  the  bones 
made  it  necessary  to  devise  especial  methods  to  give 
each  bone  a  rigid  and  complete  support  as  otherwise  it 
would  soon  break  in  pieces  from  its  own  weight.  The 
proper  articulating  of  the  bones  and  posing  of  the  limbs 
were  equally  difficult  problems,  for  the  Amphibious 
Dinosaurs,  to  which  this  animal  belongs,  disappeared 
from  the  earth  long  before  the  dawn  of  the  Age  of 
Mammals,  and  their  nearest  relatives,  the  living 
lizards,  crocodiles,  etc.,  are  so  remote  from  them  in 
either  proportions  or  habits  that  they  are  unsatisfactory 
guides  in  determining  how  the  bones  were  articulated 
and  are  of  but  little  use  in  posing  the  limbs  and  other 
parts  of  the  body  in  positions  that  they  must  have 
taken  during  life.  Nor  among  the  higher  animals  of 
modern  times  is  there  one  which  has  any  analogy  in 
appearance  or  habits  of  life  to  those  which  we  have 
been  obliged  by  the  study  of  the  skeleton  to  ascribe  to 
the  Brontosaurus. 

"As  far  as  the  backbone  and  ribs  were  concerned,  the 
articulating  surfaces  of  the  bones  were  a  sufficient 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS  65 

guide  to  enable  us  to  pose  this  part  of  the  skeleton 
properly.  The  limb  joints,  however,  are  so  imperfect 
that  we  could  not  in  this  way  make  sure  of  having  the 
bones  in  a  correct  position.  The  following  method, 
therefore,  was  adopted. 

"A  dissection  and  thorough  study  was  made  by  the 
writer,  with  the  assistance  of  Mr.  Granger,  of  the 
limbs  of  alligators  and  other  reptiles,  and  the  position, 
size  and  action  of  the  principal  muscles  were  carefully 
worked  out.  Then  the  corresponding  bones  of  the 
Brontosaurus  were  studied,  and  the  position  and  size 
of  the  corresponding  muscles  were  worked  out,  so  far 
as  they  could  be  recognized  from  the  scars  and  processes 
preserved  on  the  bone.  The  Brontosaurus  limbs  were 
then  provisionally  articulated  and  posed,  and  the 
position  and  size  of  each  muscle  were  represented  by  a 
broad  strip  of  paper  extending  from  its  origin  to  its 
insertion.  The  action  and  play  of  the  muscles  on  the 
limb  of  the  Brontosaurus  could  then  be  studied,  and 
the  bones  adjusted  until  a  proper  and  mechanically 
correct  pose  was  reached.  The  limbs  were  then  per- 
manently mounted  in  these  poses,  and  the  skeleton 
as  it  stands  is  believed  to  represent,  as  nearly  as  study 
of  the  fossil  enables  us  to  know,  a  characteristic  posi- 
tion that  the  animal  actually  assumed  during  life. 

"In  proportions  and  appearance  the  Brontosaurus 
was  quite  unlike  any  living  animal.  It  had  a  long  thick 
tail  like  the  lizards  and  crocodiles,  a  long,  flexible  neck 
like  an  ostrich,  a  thick  short,  slab-sided  body  and 


66  DINOSAURS 

straight,  massive,  post-like  limbs  suggesting  the  ele- 
phant, and  a  remarkably  small  head  for  the  size  of  the 
beast.  The  ribs,  limb-bones  and  tail-bones  are  excep- 
tionally solid  and  heavy;  the  vertebrae  of  the  back  and 
neck,  and  the  skull,  on  the  contrary  are  constructed  so 
as  to  combine  the  minimum  of  weight  with  the  large 
surface  necessary  for  the  attachment  of  the  huge 
muscles,  the  largest  possible  articulating  surfaces,  and 
the  necessary  strength  at  all  points  of  strain.  For  this 
purpose  they  are  constructed  with  an  elaborate  system 
of  braces  and  buttresses  of  thin  bony  plates  connecting 
the  broad  articulating  surfaces  and  muscular  attach- 
ments, all  the  bone  between  these  thin  plates  being 
hollowed  into  a  complicated  system  of  air-cavities. 
.  This  remarkable  structure  can  be  best  seen  in  the  un- 
mounted skeleton  of  Camarasaurus,  another  Amphi- 
bious Dinosaur."  (The  scientific  name  Camarasaurus 
=chambered  lizard,  has  reference  to  this  pecularity 
of  construction.) 

"The  teeth  of  the  Brontosaurus  indicate  that  it  was 
an  herbivorous  animal,  feeding  on  soft  vegetable  food. 
Three  opinions  as  to  the  habitat  of  Amphibious  Din- 
osaurs have  been  held  by  scientific  authorities.  The 
first,  advocated  by  Professor  Owen,  who  described  the 
first  specimens  found  sixty  years  ago  (1841-60)  and  sup- 
ported especially  by  Professor  Cope,  has  been  most 
generally  adopted.  This  regards  the  animals  as 
spending  their  lives  entirely  in  shallow  water,  partly 
immersed,  wading  about  on  the  bottom,  or  perhaps 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS 


67 


68  DINOSAURS 

occasionally  swimming,  but  unable  to  emerge  entirely 
upon  dry  land.*  More  recently,  Professor  Osborn  has 
advocated  the  view  that  they  resorted  occasionally  to 
the  land  for  egg  laying  or  other  purposes,  and  still  more 
recently  the  view  has  been  taken  by  Mr.  Riggs  and  the 
late  Professor  Hatcher  that  they  were  chiefly  ter- 
restrial animals.  The  writer  inclines  to  the  view  of 
Owen  and  Cope,  whose  unequalled  knowledge  of  com- 
parative anatomy  renders  their  opinion  on  this  doubt- 
ful question  especially  authoritative. 

"The  contrast  between  the  massive  structure  of  the 
limb-bones,  ribs  and  tail,  and  the  light  construction  of 
the  backbone,  neck  and  skull,  suggests  that  the  animal 
was  amphibious,  living  chiefly  in  shallow  water,  where 
it  could  wade  about  on  the  bottom,  feeding  upon  the 
abundant  vegetation  of  the  coastal  swamps  and 
marshes,  and  pretty  much  out  of  reach  of  the  powerful 
and  active  Carnivorous  Dinosaurs  which  were  its 
principal  enemies.  The  water  would  buoy  up  the 
massive  body  and  prevent  its  weight  from  pressing  too 
heavily  on  the  imperfect  joints  of  the  limb  and  foot 
bones,  which  were  covered  during  life  with  thick  carti- 
lage, like  the  joints  of  whales,  sea-lizards  and  other  aquatic- 
animals.  If  the  full  weight  of  the  animal  came  on  these 
imperfect  joints  the  cartilage  would  yield  and  the  ends 

•Professor  Williston  makes  the  following  criticism  of  this  theory: 
"I  cannot  agree  with  this  view — the  animals  must  have  laid 
their  eggs  upon  land— for  the  reason  that  reptile  eggs  cannot 
hatch  in  water.     S.  W.  W." 

But  with  deference  to  Williston's  high  authority  I  may  note  that  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  Sauropoda  were  egg-laying  reptiles.  They, 
or  some  of  them,  may  have  been  viviparous  like  the  Ichthyosaurus. 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS  69 

of  the  bones  would  grind  against  each  other,  thus  pre- 
venting the  limb  from  moving  without  tearing  the  joint 
to  pieces.  The  massive,  solid  limb  and  foot  bones 
weighted  the  limbs  while  immersed  in  water,  and  served 
the  same  purpose  as  the  lead  in  a  diver's  shoes,  enabling 
the  Brontosaurus  to  walk  about  firmly  and  securely 
under  water.  On  the  other  hand,  the  joints  of  the 
neck  and  back  are  exceptionally  broad,  well  fitting  and 
covered  with  a  much  thinner  surface  of  cartilage.  The 
pressure  was  thus  much  better  distributed  over  the 
joint,  and  the  full  weight  of  the  part  of  the  animal  above 
water  (reduced  as  it  was  by  the  cellular  construction  of 
the  bones)  might  be  borne  on  these  joints  without  the 
cartilage  giving  way. 

"Looking  at  the  mounted  skeleton  we  may  see  that  if 
a  line  be  drawn  from  the  hip  joint  to  the  shoulder-blade, 
all  the  bones  below  this  are  massive,  all  above  (includ- 
ing neck  and  head)  are  lightly  constructed.  This  line 
may  be  taken  to  indicate  the  average  water-line,  so  to 
speak,  of  this  Leviathan  of  the  Shallows.  The  long 
neck  would  enable  the  animal,  however,  to  wade  to  a 
considerable  depth,  and  it  might  forage  for  food  either 
in  the  branches  or  the  tops  of  trees,  or  more  probably, 
among  the  soft  succulent  water-plants  of  the  bottom. 
The  row  of  short  spoon-shaped  stubby  teeth  around 
the  front  of  the  mouth  would  serve  to  bite  or  pull  off 
soft  leaves  and  water-plants,  but  the  animal  evidently 
could  not  masticate  its  food,  and  must  have  swallowed 
it  without  chewing  as  do  modern  reptiles  and  birds. 


70  DINOSAURS 

"The  brain-case  occupies  only  a  small  part  of  the 
back  of  the  skull,  so  that  the  brain  nust  have  been 
small  even  for  a  reptile,  and  its  organization  (as  inferred 
from  the  form  of  the  brain-case)  indicates  a  very  low 
grade  of  intelligence.  Much  larger  than  the  brain 
proper  was  the  spinal  cord,  especially  in  the  region  of 
the  sacrum,  controlling  most  of  the  reflex  and  involun- 
tary actions  of  the  huge  organism.  Hence  we  can 
best  regard  the  Brontosaurus  as  a  great,  slow-moving 
animal  automaton,  a  vast  storehouse  of  organized 
matter  directed  chiefly  or  solely  by  instinct,  and  to  a 
very  limited  degree,  if  at  all,  by  conscious  intelligence. 
Its  huge  size  and  its  imperfect  organization,  compared 
with  the  great  quadrupeds  of  today,  rendered  its  move- 
ments slow  and  clumsy;  its  small  and  low  brain  shows 
that  it  must  have  been  automatic,  instinctive  and  un- 
intelligent. 

Composition  of  the  Brontosaurus  Skeleton.  "The prin- 
cipal specimen,  No.  460,  is  from  the  Nine  Mile  Crossing 
of  the  Little  Medicine  Bow  River,  Wyoming. 
It  consists  of  the  5th,  6th,  and  8th  to  13th  cervical 
vertebrae,  1st  to  9th  dorsal  and  3rd  to  19th  caudal 
vertebrae,  all  the  ribs,  both  coracoids,  parts  of 
sacrum  and  ilia,  both  ischia  and  pubes,  left  femur  and 
astragalus,  and  part  of  left  fibula.  The  backbone  and 
most  of  the  neck  of  this  specimen  were  found  articu- 
lated together  in  the  quarry,  the  ribs  of  one  side  in 
position,  the  remainder  of  the  bones  scattered  around 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS 


71 


them,  and  some  of  the  tail  bones  weathered  out  on  the 
surface. 

"From  No.  222,  found  at  Como  Bluffs,  Wyo.,  were 
supplied  the  right  scapula,  10th  dorsal  vertebra,  and 
right  femur  and  tibia. 

"No.  339,  from  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  Wyoming,  sup- 
plied the  20th  to  40th  caudal  vertebrae,  No.  592,  from 


Fig.  23. — Skull  of  Diplodocus  from  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  north  of  Medicine 
Bow,  Wyoming. 

the  same  locality  the  metatarsals  of  the  right  hind  foot; 
and  a  few  toe  bones  are  supplied  from  other  specimens. 

"The  remainder  of  the  skeleton  is  modelled  in  plaster, 
the  scapula,  humerus,  radius  and  ulna  from  the  skele- 
ton in  the  Yale  Museum,  the  rest  principally  from  speci- 
mens in  our  own  collections.  The  modelling  of  the 
skull  is  based  partly  upon  specimens  in  the  Yale 
Museum,  but  principally  upon  the  complete  skull  of 
Morosaurus  shown  in  another  case. 

"Mounted  by  A.  Hermann,  completed  Feb.  10, 1905." 


72  DINOSAURS 

Diplodocus.  The  Diplodocus  nearly  equalled  theBron- 
tosaurus  in  bulk  and  exceeded  it  in  length.  A  skeleton  in 
the  Carnegie  Museum  at  Pittsburgh  measures  87  feet  in 
total  length;  although  the  mount  is  composed  from 
several  individuals  these  proportions  are  probably  not 
far  from  correct.  The  skull  is  smaller  and  differently 
shaped  and  the  teeth  are  of  quite  different  type.  In 
the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  a  partial 
skeleton  is  exhibited  in  the  wall  case  to  the  left  of  the 
entrance  of  the  Dinosaur  Hall,  and  in  an  A-case  near  by 
are  skulls  of  Diplodocus  and  Morosaurus  and  a  model  of 
the  skull  of  Brontosaurus.  The  Diplodocus  skull  is 
widely  different  from  the  other  two  in  size  and  propor- 
tions and  in  the  characters  of  teeth. 

When  the  first  remains  of  these  amphibious  Dinosaurs 
were  found  in  the  Oxford  Clays  of  England,  they  were 
considered  by  Richard  Owen  to  be  related  to  the  Croco- 
diles, and  named  Opisthocoelia.  Subsequently  the  find- 
ing of  complete  skeletons  in  this  country  led  Cope  and 
Marsh  to  place  them  with  the  true  Dinosaurs  and  the 
latter  named  them  Sauropoda.*  Remains  of  these 
animals  have  also  been  found  in  India,  in  German  East 
Africa,  in  Madagascar,  and  in  South  America,  so  that 
they  were  evidently  widely  distributed.  In  the  North- 
ern world  they  survived  until  the  Comanchic  or  Lower 


'European  palaeontologists,  especially  Huxley  and  Seeley  in  England, 
had  also  recognized  their  true  relationships,  and  Seeley's  term  Cetio- 
sauna  has  precedence  over  Sauropoda,  although  the  latter  is  in  common 


THE    AMPHIBIOUS    DINOSAURS  73 

Cretaceous  Period,  but  in  the  southern  continents  they 
may  have  lived  on  into  the  Upper  Cretaceous  or  true 
Cretacic.  Some  of  the  remains  recently  found  in  Ger- 
man East  Africa  indicate  an  animal  exceeding  either 
Brontosaurus  or  Diplodocus  in  bulk. 

At  the  date  of  writing  this  handbook  only  preliminary 
accounts  have  been  given  of  the  marvellous  finds  made 


Fig.  24. — The  Largest  Known  Dinosaur.  Sketch  reconstruction  of  Brachio- 
saurus,  from  specimens  in  the  Field  Museum  in  Chicago,  and  the 
Natural  History  Museum  in  Berlin. 

near  Tendaguru  by  the  expedition  from  Berlin.  From 
these  it  appears  that  in  length  of  neck  and  fore  limb 
this  East  African  Dinosaur  greatly  exceeded  either 
Brontosaurus  or  Diplodocus.  The  hinder  parts  of  the 
skeleton  however,  were  relatively  small.  The  propor- 
tions and  measurements  given  tally  closely  with  the 


74  DINOSAURS 

American  Brachiosaurus,  a  gigantic  sauropod  whose 
incomplete  remains  are  preserved  in  the  Field  Museum 
in  Chicago  and  to  this  genus  the  Berlin  authorities  now 
refer  their  largest  and  finest  skeleton.  If  the  Berlin 
specimens  are  correctly  referred  to  Brachiosaurus  they 
indicate  an  animal  somewhat  exceeding  Diplodocus  or 
Brontosaurus  in  total  bulk  but  distinguished  by  much 
longer  fore  limbs  and  an  immensely  long  neck — a 
giraffe-like  wader  adapted  to  take  refuge  in  deeper 
waters,  more  out  of  reach  of  the  fierce  carnivores  of  the 
land.* 


*It  is  of  interest  to  observe  that  in  this  group  of  Sauropoda,  the 
Brachiosauridse,  the  neural  spines  of  the  vertebrae  are  much  simpler 
and  narrower  than  in  the  Brontosaurus  and  Diplodocus.  The  attach- 
ments were  thus  less  extensive  for  the  muscles  of  the  back,  indicating 
that  these  muscles  were  less  powerful:  This  difference  is  correlated  by 
Professor  Williston  with  the  longer  fore  limbs  of  the  Brachiosaurus,  as 
signifying  that  the  animal  was  less  able,  as  indeed  he  had  less  need,  to 
rise  up  upon  the  hind  limbs,  in  comparison  with  Diplodocus  or  Bronto- 
saurus in  which  the  fore  limbs  were  relatively  short. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  BEAKED  DINOSAURS. 

ORDER  ORTHOPODA  (ORNITHISCHIA  OR  PREDENTATA.) 

The  peculiar  feature  of  this  group  of  Dinosaurs  is  the 
horny  beak  or  bill.  The  bony  core  sutured  to  the  front 
of  the  upper  and  lower  jaws  was  covered  in  life  by  a 
horny  sheath,  as  in  birds  or  turtles.  But  this  is  not  the 
only  feature  in  which  they  came  nearer  to  birds  than  do 
the  other  Dinosaurs.  The  pelvic  or  hip  bones  are  much 
more  bird-like  in  many  respects,  especially  the  back- 
ward direction  of  the  pubic  bone,  the  presence  of  a 
prepubis,  in  the  number  of  vertebrae  coossified  into  a 
solid  sacrum,  in  the  proportions  of  the  ilium  and  so  on. 
Various  features  in  the  anatomy  of  the  head,  shoulder- 
blades  and  hind  limbs  are  equally  suggestive  of  birds, 
and  it  seems  probable  that  the  earliest  ancestors  of  the 
birds  were  very  closely  related  to  the  ancestors  of  this 
group  of  Dinosaurs.  But  the  ancestral  birds  became 
adapted  to  flying,  the  ancestral  Predentates  to  ter- 
restrial life,  and  in  their  later  development  became  as 
widely  diversified  in  form  and  habits  as  the  warm- 
blooded quadrupeds  which  succeeded  them  in  the 
Age  of  Mammals. 

These  Beaked  Dinosaurs  were,  so  far  as  we  can  tell, 
all  vegetarians.  Unlike  the  birds,  they  retained  their 


76 


DINOSAURS 


teeth  and  in  some  cases  converted  them  into  a  grinding 
apparatus  which  served  the  same  purpose  as  the  grinders 
of  herbivorous  quadrupeds.  It  is  interesting  to  observe 
the  different  way  in  which  this  result  is  attained.  In 


Corythos 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS  77 

the  mammals,  the  teeth,  originally  more  complex  in 
construction  and  fewer  in  number,  are  converted  into 
efficient  grinders  by  infolding  and  elongation  of  the 
crown  of  each  tooth  so  as  to  produce  on  the  wearing 
surface  a  complex  pattern  of  enamel  ridges  with  softer 
dentine  or  cement  intervening,  making  a  series  of  crests 
and  hollows  continually  renewed  during  the  wear  of  the 
tooth.  In  the  reptile  the  teeth,  originally  simple  in 
construction  but  more  numerous  and  continually 
renewed  as  they  wear  down  and  fall  out,  *  are  banked  up 
in  several  close  packed  rows,  the  enamel  borders  and 
softer  dentine  giving  a  wearing  surface  of  alternating 
crests  and  hollows  continually  renewed,  and  rein- 
forced from  time  to  time,  by  the  addition  of  new  rows 
of  teeth  to  one  side,  as  the  first  formed  rows  wear  down 
to  the  roots.  This  is  the  best  illustrated  in  the  Tracho- 
don  (see  fig.  27) ;  the  other  groups  have  not  so  perfect  a 
mechanism. 

A.     THE  IGUANODONTS:  IGUANODON, 
CAMPTOSAURUS. 

Sub-Order  Ornithopoda  or  Iguanodontia. 

In  the  early  days  of  geology,  about  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  bones  and  footprints  of  huge  extinct 
reptiles  were  found  in  the  rocks  of  the  Weald  in  south- 
eastern England.  They  were  described  by  Mantell  and 


Trachodont  teeth  never  drop  out,  they  are  completely  consumed. 
Only  in  the  Iguanodonts  and  Ceratopsia  are  they  shed. — B.  Brown. 


78 


DINOSAURS 


THE   BEAKED   DINOSAURS  79 

Owen  and  shown  to  pertain  to  an  extinct  group  of  rep- 
tiles which  Owen  called  the  Dinosauria.  So  different 
were  these  bones  from  those  of  any  modern  reptiles 
that  even  the  anatomical  learning  of  the  great  English 
palaeontologist  did  not  enable  him  to  place  them  all 
correctly  or  reconstruct  the  true  proportions  of  the 
animal  to  which  they  belonged.  With  them  were 
found  associated  the  bones  of  the  great  carnivorous 
dinosaur  Megalosaurus;  and  the  weird  reconstructions 
of  these  animals,  based  by  Waterhouse  Hawkins  upon 
the  imperfect  knowledge  and  erroneous  ideas  then 
prevailing,  must  be  familiar  to  many  of  the  older 
readers  of  this  handbook.  Life  size  restorations  of 
these  and  other  extinct  animals  were  erected  in  the 
grounds  of  the  Crystal  Palace  at  Sydenham,  London, 
and  in  Central  Park,  New  York.  Those  in  London 
still  exist,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  aware,  but  the  stern 
mandate  of  a  former  mayor  of  New  York  ordered  the 
destruction  of  the  Central  Park  models,  not  indeed  as 
incorrect  scientifically,  but  as  inconsistent  with  the 
doctrines  of  revealed  religion,  and  they  were  accordingly 
broken  up  and  thrown  into  the  waters  of  the  Park  lake. 
Small  replicas  of  these  early  attempts  at  restoring 
dinosaurs  may  still  be  seen  in  some  of  the  older  museums 
in  this  country  and  abroad. 

The  real  construction  of  the  Iguanodon  was  gradu- 
ally built  up  by  later  discoveries,  and  in  1877  an  extra- 
ordinary find  in  a  coal  mine  at  Bernissart  in  Belgium 
brought  to  light  no  less  than  seventeen  skeletons  more 


80  DINOSAURS 

or  less  complete.  These  were  found  in  an  ancient  fissure 
filled  with  rocks  of  Comanchic  age,  traversing  the  Car- 
boniferous strata  in  which  the  coal  seam  lay,  and  with 
them  were  skeletons  of  other  extinct  reptiles  of  smaller 
size.  The  open  fissure  had  evidently  served  as  a  trap 
into  which  these  ancient  giants  had  fallen,  and  either 
killed  by  the  fall  or  unable  to  escape  from  the  pit,  their 
remains  had  been  subsequently  covered  up  by  sedi- 
ments and  the  pit  filled  in  to  remain  sealed  up  until  the 


Fig.  27.— Teeth  of  the  duck-billed  dinosaur  Trachodon.     The  dental  magazine 
is  been  removed  from  the  lower  jaw  and  is  seen  to  consist  of  several 
close-set  rows  of  numerous  small  pencil-like  teeth  which  are  pushed 
up  from  beneath  as  they  wear  off  at  the  grinding  surface. 

present  day.  These  skeletons,  unique  in  their  occur- 
rence and  manner  of  discovery,  are  the  pride  of  the 
Brussels  Museum  of  Natural  History,  and,  together 
with  the  earlier  discoveries,  have  made  the  Iguanodon 
the  most  familiar  type  of  dinosaur  to  the  people  of 
England  and  Western  Europe. 

Camptosaurus.  The  American  counterpart  of  the 
Iguanodons  of  Europe  was  the  Camptosaurus,  nearly 
related  and  generally  similar  in  proportions  but  includ- 
ing mostly  smaller  species,  and  lacking  some  of  the 


THE   BEAKED    DINOSAURS  81 

peculiar  features  of  the  Old  World  genus.  In  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington,  are  mounted  two 
skeletons  of  Camptosaurus,  a  large  and  a  small  species, 
and  in  the  American  Museum  a  skeleton  of  a  small 
species.  It  suggests  a  large  kangaroo  in  size  and  pro- 
portions, but  the  three-toed  feet,  with  hoof-like  claws, 
the  reptilian  skull,  loosely  put  together,  with  lizard- 
like  cheek  teeth  and  turtle  beak  indicate  a  near 
relative  of  the  great  Iguanodon. 

Thescelosaurus.  The  Iguanodont  family  survived 
until  the  close  of  the  Age  of  Reptiles,  with  no  great 
change  in  proportions  or  characters.  Its  latest  member 
is  Thescelosaurus,  a  contemporary  of  Triceratops. 
Partial  skeletons"  of  this  animal  are  shown  in  the  Dino- 
saur Hall;  a  more  complete  one  is  in  the  National 
Museum. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE    BEAKED    DINOSAURS    (Continued). 

B .    THE  DUCK  BILLED  DINOSAURS, — TRACHODON, 

SAUROLOPHUS,  ETC. 
Sub-Order  Ornithopoda;  Family  Trachodontidce. 

These  animals  of  the  Upper  Cretaceous  are  probably 
descended  from  the  Iguanodonts  of  an  older  period. 
But  the  long  ages  that  intervened,  some  millions  of 
years,  have  brought  about  various  changes  in  the  race, 
not  so  much  in  general  proportions  as  in  altering  the 
form  and  relations  of  various  bones  of  skull  and  skele- 
ton and  perfecting  their  adaptation  to  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent habit  of  life,  so  that  they  must  be  regarded  as 
descendants  perhaps,  but  certainly  rather  distant  rela- 
tives, of  the  older  group. 

We  know  more  about  the  Trachodonts  than  any  other 
dinosaurs.  For  not  only  are  the  skeletons  more  fre- 
quently found  articulated,  but  parts  of  the  skin  are 
not  uncommonly  preserved  with  them,  and  in  one 
specimen  at  least,  so  much  of  the  skin  is  preserved  that 
it  may  fairly  be  called  a  "dinosaur  mummy."  This 
specimen  of  Trachodon  is  in  the  American  Museum,  and 
beside  it  are  two  fine  mounted  skeletons  of  the  largest 
size.  There  is  also  on  exhibition  a  panel  mount  of  a 

82 


THE   BEAKED    DINOSAURS  83 

nearly  related  genus,  Saurolophus  the  skeleton  lying  as 
it  was  found  in  the  rock,  and  a  fine  skeleton  of  a  third 
genus  Corythosaurus  with  the  skin  partly  preserved  on 
both  sides  of  the  crushed  and  flattened  body  stands 
beside  it.  In  the  Tyrannosaurus  group  when  completed 
will  appear  a  fourth  skeleton  of  the  Trachodon.  Several 
skulls  and  incomplete  skeletons  on  exhibition  and  other 
skeletons  not  yet  prepared  add  to  the  Museum  collec- 
tion of  this  group.  Trachodon  skeletons  may  also  be 
found  in  the  Museums  of  New  Haven,  Washington, 
Frankfurt-on-the-Main,  London  and  Paris,  but  no- 
where a  series  comparable  to  that  displayed  at  the 
American  Museum. 

The  following  de- 

THE  TRACHODON  GROUP,     scription  of  the  Tra- 
chodon group  is  by 

Mr.  Barnum  Brown  and  first  appeared  in  the  Ameri- 
can Museum  Journal  for  April  1908:* 

"This  group  takes  us  back  in  imagination  to  the 
Cretaceous  period,  more  than  three  millions  of  years 
ago,  when  Trachodonts  were  among  the  most  numerous 
of  the  dinosaurs.  Two  members  of  the  family  are 
represented  here  as  feeding  in  the  marshes  that  charac- 
terized the  period,  when  one  is  startled  by  the  approach 
of  a  carnivorous  dinosaur,  Tyrannosaurus,  their  enemy, 
and  rises  on  tiptoe  to  look  over  the  surrounding  plants 
and  determine  the  direction  from  which  it  is  coming. 


*Brown,  Barnum.     "The   Trachodon   Group."     Amer.  Mus.  Jour. 
Vol.  viii,  pp.  51-56,  plate  and  3  text  figs.,  1908. 


84 


DINOSAURS 


The  other  Trachodon,  unaware  of  danger,  continues 
peacefully  to  crop  the  foliage.  Perhaps  the  erect 
member  of  the  group  had  already  had  unpleasant  experi- 
ences with  hostile  beasts,  for  a  bone  of  its  left  foot  bears 


Fig.  28.-Mounted  Skeletons  of  Trachodon  in  the  American  Museum, 
of  standing  skeleton  16  feet,  10  inches. 


Height 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS  85 

three  sharp  gashes  which  were  made  by  the  teeth  of 
some  carnivorous  dinosaur. 

"By  thus  grouping  the  skeletons  in  lifelike  attitudes, 
the  relation  of  the  different  bones  can  best  be  shown, 
but  these  of  course  are  only  two  of  the  attitudes  com- 
monly taken  by  the  creatures  during  life.  Mechanical 
and  anatomical  considerations,  especially  the  long 
straight  shafts  of  the  leg  bones,  indicate  that  dinosaurs 
walked  with  their  limbs  straight  under  the  body,  rather 
than  in  a  crawling  attitude  with  the  belly  close  to  the 
ground,  as  is  common  among  living  reptiles. 

"Trachodonts  lived  near  the  close  of  the  Age  of 
Reptiles  in  the  Upper  Cretaceous  and  had  a  wide 
geographical  distribution,  their  remains  having  been 
found  in  New  Jersey,  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  but 
more  commonly  in  Wyoming,  Montana,  and  the 
Dakotas.  A  suggestion  of  the  great  antiquity  of  these 
specimens  is  given  by  the  fact  that  since  the  animals 
died  layers  of  rock  aggregating  many  thousand  feet  in 
vertical  thickness  have  been  deposited  along  the  Atlan- 
tic coast. 

"The  bones  of  the  erect  specimen  are  but  little 
crushed  arid  a  clear  conception  of  the  proportions  of  the 
animal  can  best  be  obtained  from  this  specimen.  It 
will  be  seen  that  the  Trachodon  was  shaped  somewhat 
like  a  kangaroo,  with  short  fore  legs,  long  hind  legs,  and 
a  long  tail.  The  fore  limbs  are  reduced  indeed  to  about 
one-sixth  the  size  of  the  hind  limbs  and  judging  from 
the  size  and  shape  of  the  foot  bones  the  front  legs  could 
not  have  borne  much  weight.  They  were  probably 
used  in  supporting  the  anterior  portion  of  the  body 


86  DINOSAURS 

when  the  creature  was  feeding,  and  in  aiding  it  to 
recover  an  upright  position.  The  specimen  represented 
as  feeding  is  posed  so  that  the  fore  legs  carry  very  little 
of  the  weight  of  the  body.  There  are  four  toes  on  the 
front  foot  but  the  thumb  is  greatly  reduced  and  the 
fifth  digit  or  little  finger,  is  absent."  (Subsequent 
discoveries  have  shown  that  the  arrangement  of  the 
digits  made  by  Marsh  and  followed  in  this  skeleton  is 
incorrect.  It  is  the  first  digit  that  is  absent,  and  the 
fifth  is  reduced.) 

"The  hind  legs  are  massive  and  have  three  well 
developed  toes  ending  in  broad  hoofs.  The  pelvis  is 
lightly  constructed  with  bones  elongated  like  those  of 
birds.  The  long  deep  compressed  tail  was  particularly 
adapted  for  locomotion  in  the  water.  It  may  also  have 
served  to  balance  the  creature  when  standing  erect  on 
shore.  The  broad  expanded  lip  of  bone  known  as  the 
fourth  trochanter,  on  the  inner  posterior  face  of  the 
femur  or  thigh  bone  was  for  the  attachment  of  powerful 
tail  muscles  similar  to  those  which  enable  the  crocodile 
to  move  its  tail  from  side  to  side  with  such  dexterity. 
This  trochanter  is  absent  from  the  thigh  bones  of  land- 
inhabiting  dinosaurs  with  short  tails,  such  as  Stegosau- 
rus  and  Triceratops.  The  tail  muscles  were  attached 
to  the  vertebrae  by  numerous  rod-like  tendons  which 
are  preserved  in  position  as  fossils  on  the  erect  skeleton. 
Trachodonts  are  thought  to  have  been  expert  swimmers. 
Unlike  other  dinosaurs  their  remains  are  frequently 
found  in  rocks  that  were  formed  under  sea  water  prob- 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS  87 

ably  bordering  the  shores  but  nevertheless  containing 
typical  sea  shells. 

"The  elaborate  dental  apparatus  is  such  as  to  show 
clearly  that  Trachodonts  were  strictly  herbivorous 
creatures.  The  mouth  was  expanded  to  form  a  broad 
duck-like  bill  which  during  life  was  covered  with  a 
horny  sheath,  as  in  birds  and  turtles.  Each  jaw  is 
provided  with  from  45  to  60  vertical  and  from  10  to  14 
horizontal  rows  of  teeth,  so  that  there  were  more  than 
2000  teeth  altogether  in  both  jaws. 

"Among  living  saurians,  or  reptiles,  the  small  South 
American  iguana  Amblyrhynchus  may  be  compared  in 
some  respects  with  the  Trachodons  notwithstanding 
the  difference  in  size.  These  modern  saurians  live  in 
great  numbers  on  the  shores  of  the  Galapagos  Islands 
off  the  coast  of  Chile.  They  swim  out  to  sea  in  shoals 
and  feed  exclusively  on  seaweed  which  grows  on  the 
bottom  at  some  distance  from  shore.  The  animal 
swims  with  perfect  ease  and  quickness  by  a  serpentine 
movement  of  its  body  and  flattened  tail,  its  legs  mean- 
while being  closely  pressed  to  its  side  and  motionless. 
This  is  also  the  method  of  propulsion  of  crocodiles 
when  swimming. 

"The  carnivorous  or  flesh-eating  dinosaurs  that  lived 
on  land,  such  as  Allosaurus  and  Tyrannosaurus,  were 
protected  from  foes  by  their  sharp  biting  teeth,  while 
the  land-living  herbivorous  forms  were  provided  with 
defensive  horns,  as  in  Triceratops,  sharp  spines  as  in 


88  DINOSAURS 

Stegosaurus  or  were  completely  armored  as  in  Anky- 
losaurus.  Trachodon  was  not  provided  with  horns, 
spines  or  plated  armor,  but  it  was  sufficiently  protected 
from  carnivorous  land  forms  by  being  able  to  enter  and 
remain  in  the  water.  Its  skin  was  covered  with  small 
raised  scales,  pentagonal  in  form  on  the  body  and  tail, 
where  they  were  largest,  with  smaller  reticulations  over 
the  joints  but  never  overlapping  as  in  snakes  or  fishes. 
A  Trachodon  skeleton  was  recently  found  with  an 
impression  of  the  skin  surrounding  the  vertebrae  which 
is  so  well  preserved  that  it  gives  even  the  contour  of  the 
tail  as  is  shown  in  the  illustration  (fig.  32). 

"During  the  existence  of  the  Trachodonts  the  climate 
of  the  northern  part  of  North  America  was  much 
warmer  than  it  is  at  present,  the  plant  remains  indicat- 
ing a  climate  for  Wyoming  and  Montana  similar  to 
what  now  prevails  in  Southern  California.  Palm 
leaves  resembling  the  palmetto  of  Florida  are  fre- 
quently found  in  the  same  rocks  with  these  skeletons. 
Here  occur  also  such,  at  present,  widely  separated 
trees  as  the  gingko  now  native  of  China,  and  the 
Sequoia  now  native  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  Fruits  and 
leaves  of  the  fig  tree  are  also  common,  but  most  abund- 
ant among  the  plant  remains  are  the  Equisetae  or  horse- 
tail rushes,  some  species  of  which  possibly  supplied 
the  Trachodons  with  food. 

"Impressions  of  the  more  common  plants  found  in 
the  rocks  of  this  period  with  sections  of  the  tree  trunks 
showing  the  woody  structure  will  be  [have  been]  intro- 


THE   BEAKED   DINOSAURS 


90  DINOSAURS 

duced  into  the  group  as  the  ground  on  which  the 
skeletons  stand.  In  the  rivers  and  bayous  of  that 
remote  period  there  also  lived  many  kinds  of  Unios  or 
fresh-water  clams,  and  other  shells,  the  casts  of  which 
are  frequently  found  with  Trachodon  bones.  The  fossil 
trunk  of  a  coniferous  tree  was  found  in  Wyoming, 
which  was  filled  with  groups  of  wood-living  shells 
similar  to  the  living  Teredo.  These  also  will  be  intro- 
duced in  the  ground-work. 

"The  skeleton  mounted  in  a  feeding  posture  was  one 
of  the  principal  specimens  in  the  Cope  Collection,  which, 
through  the  generosity  of  the  late  President  Jesup,  was 
purchased  and  given  to  the  American  Museum.  It  was 
found  near  the  Moreau  River,  north  of  the  Black  Hills, 
South  Dakota,  in  1882,  by  Dr.  J.  L.  Wortman  and  Mr. 
R.  S.  Hill,  collectors  for  Professor  Cope.  The  erect 
skeleton  came  from  Crooked  Creek,  central  Montana, 
and  was  found  by  a  ranchman,  Mr.  Oscar  Hunter,  while 
riding  through  the  bad  lands  with  a  companion  in  1904. 
The  specimen  was  partly  exposed,  with  backbone  and 
ribs  united  in  position.  The  parts  that  were  weathered 
out  are  much  lighter  in  color  than  the  other  bones. 
Their  large  size  caused  some  discussion  between  the 
ranchmen  and  to  settle  the  question,  Mr.  Hunter  dis- 
mounted and  kicked  off  all  the  tops  of  the  vertebrae 
and  rib-heads  above  ground,  thereby  proving  by  their 
brittle  nature  that  they  were  stone  and  not  buffalo 
bones  as  the  other  man  contended.  The  proof  was 
certainly  conclusive,  but  it  was  extremely  exasperating 


THE   BEAKED    DINOSAURS 


91 


92  DINOSAURS 

to  the  subsequent  collectors.  Another  ranchman,  Mr. 
Alfred  Sensiba,  heard  of  the  find  and  knowing  that  it 
was  valuable  "traded"  Mr.  Hunter  a  six-shooter  for 
his  interest  in  it.  The  specimen  was  purchased  from 
Messrs.  Sensiba  Brothers  and  excavated  by  the  Ameri- 
can Museum  in  1906." 

We     all    belieie 

THE  DINOSAUR  "MUMMY."     that  the  Dinosaurs 

existed.      But    to 

realize  it  is  not  so  easy.  Even  with  the  help  of  the 
mounted  skeletons  and  restorations,  they  are  some- 
what unreal  and  shadowy  beings  in  the  minds  of  most 
of  us.  But  this  "dinosaur  mummy"  sprawling  on  his 
back  and  covered  with  shrunken  skin — a  real  specimen, 
not  restored  in  any  part — brings  home  the  reality  of 
this  ancient  world  even  as  the  mummy  of  an  ancient 
Egyptian  brings  home  to  us  the  reality  of  the  world 
of  the  Pharaohs.  The  description  of  this  unique 
skeleton  by  Professor  Henry  Fan-field  Osborn  first 
appeared  in  the  Museum  Journal  for  January  1911.* 
"Two  years  ago  (1908)  through  the  Jesup  Fund,  the 
Museum  came  into  possession  of  a  most  unique  speci- 
men discovered  in  August  1908,  by  the  veteran  fossil 
hunter  Charles  H.  Sternberg  of  Kansas.  It  is  a  large 
herbivorous  dinosaur  of  the  closing  period  of  the  Age  of 
Reptiles  and  is  known  to  palaeontologists  as  Trachodon 
or  more  popularly  as  the  "duck-billed  dinosaur." 


*Osborn,  Henry  Fairfield,  "Dinosaur  Mummy"  Amer    Mus 
Vol.  xi,  pp.  7-11,  illustrated,  Jan.  1911. 


.  Jour. 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS  93 

"The  skeleton  or  hard  parts  of  these  very  remarkable 
animals  had  been  known  for  over  forty  years,  and  a 
few  specimens  of  the  epidermal  covering,  but  it  was 
not  until  the  discovery  of  the  Sternberg  specimen  that 
a  complete  knowledge  of  the  outer  covering  of  these 
dinosaurs  was  gained.  It  appears  probable  that  in  a 
number  of  cases  these  priceless  skin  impressions  were 
mostly  destroyed  in  removing  the  fossil  specimens  from 
their  surroundings  because  the  explorers  were  not 
expecting  to  find  anything  of  the  kind.  Altogether 
seven  specimens  have  been  discovered  in  which  these 
delicate  skin  impressions  were  partly  preserved,  but 
the  "Trachodon  mummy"  far  surpasses  all  the  others, 
as  it  yields  a  nearly  complete  picture  of  the  outer 
covering. 

"The  reason  the  Sternberg  specimen  (Trachodon 
annectens)  may  be  known  as  a  dinosaur  "mummy"  is 
that  in  all  the  parts  of  the  animal  which  are  preserved 
(i.  e.  all  except  the  hind  limbs  and  the  tail),  the  epider- 
mis is  shrunken  around  the  limbs,  tightly  drawn  along 
the  bony  surfaces,  and  contracted  like  a  great  curtain 
below  the  chest  area.  This  condition  of  the  epidermis 
suggests  the  following  theory  of  the  deposition  and 
preservation  of  this  wonderful  specimen,  namely:  that 
after  dying  a  natural  death  the  animal  was  not  attacked 
or  preyed  upon  by  its  enemies,  and  the  body  lay  exposed 
to  the  sun  entirely  undisturbed  for  a  long  time,  perhaps 
upon  a  broad  sand  flat  of  a  stream  in  the  low-water 
stage;  the  muscles  and  viscera  thus  became  completely 


94  DINOSAURS 

dehydrated,  or  desiccated  by  the  action  of  the  sun,  the 
epidermis  shrank  around  the  limbs,  was  tightly  drawn 
down  along  all  the  bony  surfaces,  and  became  hardened 
and  leathery,  on  the  abdominal  surfaces  the  epidermis 
was  certainly  drawn  within  the  body  cavity,  while 
it  was  thrown  into  creases  and  folds  along  the  sides  of 
the  body  owing  to  the  shrinkage  of  the  tissues  within. 
At  the  termination  of  a  possible  low-water  season  dur- 
ing which  these  processes  of  desiccation  took  place,  the 
"mummy"  may  have  been  caught  in  a  sudden  flood, 
carried  down  the  stream  and  rapidly  buried  in  a  bed 
of  fine  river  sand  intermingled  with  sufficient  elements 
of  clay  to  take  a  perfect  cast  or  mold  of  all  the  epidermal 
markings  before  any  of  the  epidermal  tissues  had  time 
to  soften  under  the  solvent  action  of  the  water.  In  this 
way  the  markings  were  indicated  with  absolute  dis- 
tinctness, .  .  .  the  visitor  will  be  able  by  the 
use  of  the  hand  glass  to  study  even  the  finer  details  of 
the  pattern,  although  of  course  there  is  no  trace  either 
of  the  epidermis  itself,  which  has  entirely  disappeared, 
or  of  the  pigmentation  or  coloring,  if  such  existed. 

"Although  attaining  a  height  of  fifteen  to  sixteen  feet 
the  trachodons  were  not  covered  with  scales  or  a  bony 
protecting  armature,  but  with  dermal  tubercles  of 
relatively  small  size,  which  varied  in  shape  and  arrange- 
ment in  different  species,  and  not  improbably  associated 
with  this  varied  epidermal  pattern  there  was  a  varied 
color  pattern.  The  theory  of  a  color  pattern  is  based 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS 


95 


Pig.  3 1 . — The  Dinosaur  Mummy.     Detail  of  skin  of  under  side  of  body. 


After  Osbor,, 


96 


DINOSAURS 


chiefly  upon  the  fact  that  the  larger  tubercles  concen- 
trate and  become  more  numerous  on  all  those  portions 
of  the  body  exposed  to  the  sun,  that  is,  on  the  outer 
surfaces  of  the  fore  and  hind  limbs,  and  appear  to 
increase  also  along  the  sides  of  the  body  and  to  be  more 
concentrated  on  the  back.  On  the  less  exposed  areas, 


Fig.  32. — Skin  impression  from  the  tail  of  a  Trachodon.  The  impressions 
appear  to  have  been  left  by  horny  srtites  or -scales,  not  overlapping 
like  the  scales  on  the  body  of  most  modern  reptiles,  but  more  like 
the  scutes  on  the  head  of  a  lizard. 

the  under  side  of  the  body  and  the  inner  sides  of  the 
limbs,  the  smaller  tubercles  are  more  numerous,  the 
larger  tubercles  being  reduced  to  small  irregularly 
arranged  patches.  From  analogy  with  existing  lizards 
and  snakes  we  may  suppose,  therefore,  that  the  trach- 
odons  presented  a  darker  appearance  when  seen  from 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS 


97 


the  back  and  a  lighter  appearance  when  seen  from  the 
front. 

"The  thin  character  of  the  epidermis  as  revealed  by 
this  specimen  favors  also  the  theory  that  these  animals 
spent  a  large  part  of  their  time  in  the  water,  which 
theory  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  the  diminutive 


Fig.  33. — Skull  of  Gila  Monster  ( Heloderma) ,  for  comparison  of  surface 
with  skin  impressions  of  Trachodon.     Enlarged  to  4/3. 

fore  limb  terminates  not  in  claws  or  hoofs,  but  in  a 
broad  extension  of  the  skin,  reaching  beyond  the  fingers 
and  forming  a  kind  of  paddle.*  The  marginal  web 
which  connects  all  the  fingers  with  each  other,  together 
with  the  fact  that  the  lower  side  of  the  fore  limb  is  as 


*There  is  some  doubt  whether  this  was  really  the  condition  during 
life.     W.  D.  M. 


98  DINOSAURS 

delicate  in  its  epidermal  structure  as  the  upper,  cer- 
tainly tends  to  support  the  theory  of  the  swimming 
rather  than  the  walking  or  terrestrial  function  of  this 
fore  paddle  as  indicated  in  the  accompanying  pre- 
liminary restoration  that  was  made  by  Charles  R. 
Knight  working  under  the  writer's  direction.  One  is 
drawn  in  the  conventional  bipedal  or  standing  posture 
while  the  other  is  in  a  quadrupedal  pose  or  walking 
position,  sustaining  or  balancing  the  fore  part  of  the 
body  on  a  muddy  surface  with  its  fore  feet.  In  the 
distant  water  a  large  number  of  animals  are  disporting 
themselves. 

"The  designation  of  these  animals  as  the  "duck- 
billed" dinosaurs  in  reference  to  the  broadening  of  the 
beak,  has  long  been  considered  in  connection  with  the 
theory  of  aquatic  habitat.  The  conversion  of  the  fore 
limb  into  a  sort  of  paddle,  as  evidenced  by  the  Stern- 
berg  specimen,  strengthens  this  theory. 

"This  truly  wonderful  specimen,  therefore,  nearly 
doubles  our  previous  insight  into  the  habits  and  life  of 
a  very  remarkable  group  of  reptiles." 

Saurolophus,  Corythosaurus.  In  the  latest  Cre- 
taceous formation,  the  Lance  or  Triceratops  beds,  all 
the  duck-billed  dinosaurs  are  much  alike,  and  are 
referred  to  the  single  genus  Trachodon.  In  somewhat 
older  formations  of  the  Cretacic  period  there  were 
several  different  kinds.  Saurolophus  has  a  high  bony 
spine  rising  from  the  top  of  the  skull;  in  Corythosaurus 
there  is  a  thin  high  crest  like  the  crown  of  a  cassowary  on 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS 


99 


100  DINOSAURS 

top  of  the  skull,  and  the  muzzle  is  short  and  small 
giving  a  very  peculiar  aspect  to  the  head.  Complete 
skeletons  of  these  two  genera  are  exhibited  in  the 
Dinosaur  Hall;  the  Corythosaurus  is  worthy  of  careful 
study,  as  the  skin  of  the  body,  hind  limbs  and  tail,  the 
ossified  tendons,  and  even  the  impressions  of  the 
muscular  tissues  in  parts  of  the  body  and  tail,  are  more 
or  less  clearly  indicated. 

These  Duck-billed  Dinosaurs  probably  ranged  all 
over  North  America  and  the  northerly  portions  of  the 
Old  World  during  the  later  Cretacic.  Fragmentary 
remains  have  been  found  in  New  Jersey  and  south- 
ward along  the  Atlantic  coast.  A  partial  skeleton  was 
described  many  years  ago  by  Leidy  under  the  name  of 
Hadrosaurus  and  restored  and  mounted  in  the  museum 
of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Sciences.  Telma- 
tosaurus  of  the  Gosau  formation  in  Austria  also  belongs 
to  this  group,  and  fragmentary  remains  have  been 
found  in  the  upper  Cretacic  of  Belgium,  England 
and  France. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
THE  BEAKED  DINOSAURS  (Continued.) 

C.     THE  ARMORED  DINOSAURS — STEGOSAURUS, 
ANKYLOSAURUS. 

Sub-Order  Stegosauria. 

This  group  of  dinosaurs  is  most  remarkable  for  the 
massive  bony  armor  plates,  crests  or  spines  covering 
the  body  and  tail.  They  were  more  or  less  completely 
quadrupedal  instead  of  bipedal,  with  straight  post-like 
limbs  and  short  rounded  hoofed  feet  adapted  to  support 
the  weight  of  the  massive  body  and  heavy  armature. 
Although  so  different  superficially  from  the  bird-footed 
biped  Iguanodonts  they  are  evidently  related  to  them, 
for  the  teeth  are  similar,  and  the  horny  beak,  the  con- 
struction of  the  pelvis,  the  three-toed  hind  foot  and 
four-toed  front  foot  all  betray  relationship.  From  what 
we  know  of  them  it  seems  probable  that  they  evolved 
from  Iguanodont  ancestors,  developing  the  bony  armor 
as  a  protection  against  the  attacks  of  carnivorous 
dinosaurs,  and  modifying  the  proportions  of  limbs  and 
feet  to  enable  them  to  support  its  weight.  They  were 
evidently  herbivorous  and  some  of  them  of  gigantic 
size.  Smaller  kinds  with  less  massive  armor  have  been 
found  in  Europe  but  the  largest  and  most  extraordinary 
members  of  this  strange  race  are  from  North  America. 


102  DINOSAURS 

This    extraordinary    reptile 

STEGOSAURUS.  equalled  the  Allosaurus  in  size, 
and  bore  along  the  crest  of  the 
back  a  double  row  of  enormous  bony  plates  projecting 
upward  and  somewhat  outward  alternately  to  one  side 
and  the  other.  The  largest  of  these  plates  situated 
just  back  of  the  pelvis  were  over  two  feet  high,  two  and 
a  half  long,  thinning  out  from  a  base  four  inches  thick. 
The  tail  was  armed  with  four  or  more  stout  spines  two 
feet  long  and  five  or  six  inches  thick  at  the  base.  In 
the  neck  region  and  probably  elsewThere  the  skin  had 
numerous  small  bony  nodules  and  some  larger  ones  im- 
bedded in  its  substance  or  protecting  its  surface.  The 
head  was  absurdly  small  for  so  huge  an  animal,  and  the 
stiff  thick  tail  projected  backward  but  was  not  long 
enough  to  reach  the  ground.  The  hind  limbs  are  very 
long  and  straight,  the  fore  limbs  relatively  short,  and 
the  short  high  arched  back  and  extremely  deep  and 
compressed  body  served  to  exaggerate  the  height  and 
prominence  of  the  great  plates.  The  surface  of  these 
plates,  covered  with  a  network  of  blood-vessels,  shows 
that  they  bore  a  covering  of  thick  horny  skin  during 
life,  which  probably  projected  as  a  ridge  beyond  their 
edges  and  still  further  increased  their  size.  The  spines 
of  the  tail,  also,  were  probably  cased  in  horn. 

This  extraordinary  animal  was  a  contemporary  of  the 
Brontosaurus  and  Allosaurus,  and  its  discovery  was 
one  of  the  great  achievements  of  the  late  Professor 
Marsh.  The  skeletons  which  he  described  are  mounted 


THE   BEAKED   DINOSAURS 


103 


in  the  Yale  and  National  Museums.  Another  skele- 
ton was  found  in  the  famous  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  near 
Medicine  Bow,  Wyoming,  by  the  American  Museum 
Expedition  of  1901.  This  skeleton,  at  present  with- 
drawn from  lack  of  space,  will  be  mounted  in  the 
Jurassic  Dinosaur  Hall  in  the  new  wing  now  under 
construction. 


Fig.  35. 


After  Brown 

-Skull  and  lower  jaw  of  Armored  Dinosaur  Ankylosaurus,  from  Upper  Cretacic 
(Edmonton  formation)  of  Alberta.     Left  side  view. 


Related  to  Stegosaurus,  equally 

ANKYLOSAURUS.     huge,    but     very     different    in 
proportions  and  character  of  its 

armor  was  the  Ankylosaurus  of  the  late  Cretacic.  This 
animal,  a  contemporary  of  the  Tyrannosaurus  and 
duck-billed  dinosaurs  was  more  effectively  though  less 
grotesquely  armored  than  its  more  ancient  relative. 


104 


DINOSAURS 


The  body  is  covered  with  massive  bony  plates  set  close 
together  and  lying  flat  over  the  surface  from  head  to 
tip  of  tail.  While  the  stegosaur's  body  was  narrow 
and  compressed,  in  this  animal  it  is  exceptionally  broad 


After  Bro 


Pig.  36.  —  Ankylosaurus,  top  view  of  skull  in  fig.  35. 


and  the  wide  spreading  ribs  are  coossified  with  the 
vertebrae,  making  a  very  solid  support  for  the  trans- 
verse rows  of  armor  plates.  The  head  is  broad  triangu- 
lar, flat  topped  and  solidly  armored,  the  plates  con- 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS  105 

solidated  with  the  surface  of  the  skull  and  overhanging 
sides  and  front,  the  nostrils  and  eyes  overhung  by 
plates  and  bosses  of  bone;  and  the  tail  ended  in  a  blunt 
heavy  club  of  massive  plates  consolidated  to  each  other 
and  to  the  tip  of  the  tail  vertebrae.  The  legs  were  short, 
massive  and  straight,  ending  probably  in  elephant- 
like  feet.  The  animal  has  well  been  called  "the  most 
ponderous  animated  citadel  the  world  has  ever  seen" 
and  we  may  suppose  that  when  it  tucked  in  its  legs  and 
settled  down  on  the  surface  it  would  be  proof  even 
against  the  attacks  of  the  terrible  Tyrannosaur. 

This  marvellous  animal  was  made  known  to  science 
by  the  discoveries  of  the  Museum  parties  in  Montana 
and  Alberta  under  Barnum  Brown.  Fragmentary 
remains  of  smaller  relatives  had  been  discovered  by 
earlier  explorers  but  nothing  that  gave  any  adequate 
notion  of  its  character  or  gigantic  size.  From  a  partial 
skeleton  discovered  in  the  Hell  Creek  beds  of  Mon- 
tana, and  others  in  the  Edmonton  and  Belly  River 
formations  of  the  Red  Deer  River,  Alberta,  it  has  been 
possible  to  reconstruct  the  entire  skeleton  of  the  animal, 
save  for  the  feet,  and  to  locate  and  arrange  most  of  the 
armor  plates  exactly.  A  skeleton  mount  from  these 
specimens  will  shortly  be  constructed  for  the  Cretaceous 
Dinosaur  Hall. 

Scelidosaurus,  Polacanthus,  etc.  Various  armored 
dinosaurs,  of  smaller  size  and  less  heavily  plated,  have 
been  described  from  the  Jurassic,  Comanchic  and 
Cretacic  formations  of  Europe.  The  best  known  are 


106  DINOSAURS 

• 


Scelidosaurus  of  the  Lower  Jurassic  of  England,  and 
Polacanthus  of  the  Comanchic  (Wealden).  Stegopelta 
of  the  Cretaceous  of  Wyoming  is  more  nearly  related  to 
Ankylosaurus. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  BEAKED  DINOSAURS  (Concluded.) 

D.     THE  HORNED  DINOSAURS,  TRICERATOPS,  ETC. 

Sub-Order  Ceratopsia. 

In  1887  Professor  Marsh  published  a  brief  notice  of 
what  he  supposed  to  be  a  fossil  bison  horn  found  near 
Denver,  Colorado.  Two  years  later  the  explorations 
of  the  lamented  John  B.  Hatcher  in  Wyoming  and 
Montana  resulted  in  the  unexpected  discovery  that 
this  horn  belonged  not  to  a  bison  but  to  a  gigantic 
horned  reptile,  and  that  it  belonged  not  in  the  geological 
yesterday  as  at  first  thought,  but  in  the  far  back 
Cretacic,  millions  of  years  ago.  For  Mr.  Hatcher 
found  complete  skulls,  and  later  secured  skeletons, 
clearly  of  the  Dinosaurian  group,  but  representing  a 
race  of  dinosaurs  whose  existence,  or  at  least  their 
extraordinary  character,  had  been  quite  unsuspected. 
It  appeared  indeed  that  certain  teeth  and  skeleton 
bones  previously  discovered  by  Professor  Cope  were 
related  to  this  new  type  of  dinosaur,  but  the  fragments 
known  to  the  Philadelphia  professor  gave  him  no  idea 
of  what  the  animal  was  like,  although  with  his  usual 
acumen  he  had  discerned  that  they  differed  from  any 
animal  known  to  science  and  registered  them  as  new 


108 


DINOSAURS 


under  the  names  of  Agathaumas  1873  and  Monodonius 
1876.  Professor  Marsh  re-named  his  supposed  bison 
"Ceratops"  (i.  e.  "horned  face")  and f gave  to  the 
closely  related  skulls  discovered  by  Mr.  Hatcher  the 


Fig.  37. — Skulls  of  Horned  Dinosaurs.  The  lower  row,  Ceratops,  Styracosaurus,  Mono- 
donius, are  from  the  Middle  Cretacic  (Belly  River  formation)  of  Alberta; 
Anchiceratops  is  from  the  Upper  Cretacic  (Edmonton  formation)  of  Alberta; 
Triceratops  and  Torosaurus  from  the  uppermost  Cretacic  (Lance  formation) 
of  Wyoming. 

name  of  Triceratops  (i.  e.  "three  horned  face"),  while 
to  the  whole  group  he  gave  the  name  of  Ceratopsia. 

These  were  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  discoveries 
which  through  scientific  and  popular  descriptions  have 
made  the  Horned  Dinosaurs  familiar  to  the  world. 


THE  BEAKED   DINOSAURS  109 

Most  of  them  are  still  very  imperfectly  known,  and  of 
their  evolution  and  earlier  history  we  know  very  little 
as  yet.  But  we  can  form  a  fairly  correct  idea  of  their 
general  appearance  and  habits  and  of  the  part  they 
played  in  the  world  of  the  late  Cretacic.  So  far  as 
known  they  were  limited  to  North  America.  The  most 
striking  feature  of  the  Horned  Dinosaurs  is  the  gigantic 
skull,  armed  with  a  pair  of  horns  over  the  orbits  and  a 
median  horn  on  the  nasal  bones  in  front,  and  with  a 
great  bony  crest  projecting  at  the  back  and  sides.  In 
some  species  the  skull  with  its  bony  frill  attains  a  length 
of  seven  or  even  eight  feet  and  about  three  feet  width; 
the  usual  length  is  five  or  six  feet  and  the  width  about 
three.  In  the  best  known  genus,  Triceratops,  the  paired 
horns  are  long  and  stout  and  the  front  horn  quite  short 
or  almost  absent,  while  in  Monodonius  these  propor- 
tions are  reversed,  the  front  horn  being  long  while  the 
paired  horns  are  rudimentary. 

The  teeth  are  in  a  single  row  but  are  broadened  out 
into  a  wide  grinding  surface.  The  animal  was  quad- 
rupedal, with  short  massive  limbs  and  rounded  ele- 
phantine feet  tipped  with  hoofs,  three  in  the  hind  foot, 
four  in  the  fore  foot,  a  short  massive  tail  that  could 
hardly  reach  the  ground,  a  short  broad-barrelled  body 
and  a  short  neck  completely  hidden  on  top  and  sides 
by  the  overhanging  bony  frill  of  the  skull.  In  many 
respects  these  animals  are  suggestive  far  more  than 
any  other  dinosaurs,  of  the  great  quadrupeds  of  Ter- 
tiary and  modern  times,  rhinoceroses,  hippopotami, 


110  DINOSAURS 

titanotheres  and  elephants,  as  in  the  horns  they  suggest 
the  bison.  For  this  reason  although  less  gigantic  than 
the  Brontosaurus  or  Tyrannosaurus,  less  grotesque  per- 
haps, than  the  Stegosaurus,  they  are  more  interesting  than 
any  other  dinosaurs.  While  thus  departing  far  from 
the  earlier  type  of  the  beaked  dinosaurs  (the  Iguano- 
donts)  they  are  evidently  descended  from  them. 


Fig.  38.— Skull  of  Triceratops  from  the  Lance  formation  in  Wyoming,  one- 
eighteenth  natural  size.  The  length  of  the  horns  is  2  feet,  9  J^  inches. 
The  rostral  bone  or  beak,  and  the  lower  jaw,  are  lacking;  in  the 
illustration  on  the  cover  they  have  been  restored  in  outline.  This 
fine  skull  was  discovered  by  George  M.  Sternberg,  and  purchased 
for  the  Museum  by  Mr.  Charles  Lanier  in  1909. 

This  is  the  best  known  of  the 

TRICERATOPS.  Horned  Dinosaurs,  as  various 
skulls  and  partial  skeletons  have 
been  found  from  which  it  has  been  possible  to  recon- 
struct the  entire  animal.  There  is  a  mounted  skeleton 
in  the  National  Museum,  another  will  shortly  be 
mounted  in  the  American  Museum,  and  there  are  skulls 
in  several  American  and  European  museums. 


THE   BEAKED   DINOSAURS 


111 


Triceratops  exceeded  the  largest  rhinoceroses  in 
bulk,  equalling  a  fairly  large  elephant,  but  with  much 
shorter  legs.  The  great  horns  over  the  eyes  projected 
forward  or  partly  upward;  in  one  of  our  skulls  they  are 
333/2  inches  long.  During  life  they  were  probably 
covered  with  horn  increasing  the  length  by  six  inches  or 


Fig.  39  — Skull  of  Monoclonius,  a  horned  dinosaur  from  the  Cretacic  (Belly 
River  formation)  of  Alberta.  One-fifteenth  natural  size.  The 
horns  over  the  eyes  are  rudimentary,  and  the  nasal  horn  large, 
reversing  the  proportions  in  Triceratops. 

perhaps  a  foot.  The  ball-like  condyle  for  articulation 
of  the  neck  lies  far  underneath,  at  the  base  of  the  frill 
almost  in  the  middle  of  the  skull. 

Monoclonius,  Ceratops,  etc.  The  Triceratops  and  an- 
other equally  gigantic  Horned  Dinosaur,  Torosaurus, 
were  the  last  survivors  of  their  race.  In  somewhat 
older  formations  of  Cretacic  age  are  found  remains 


119  DINOSAURS 

of  smaller  kinds,  some  of  them  ancestors  of  these  latest 
survivors,  others  collaterally  related.  None  of  these 
have  the  bony  frill  completely  roofing  over  the  neck  as 
it'does  in  Triceratops.  There  is  always  a  central  spine 
projecting  backwards  and  widening  out  at  the  top  to  the 
bony  margin  of  the  frill  which  sweeps  around  on  each 
side  to  join  bony  plates  that  project  from  the  sides  of 
the  skull  top.  This  encloses  an  open  space  or  "  f  enestra," 
so  that  the  neck  was  not  completely  protected  above. 


Fig.   40.— Outline    sketch    restoration    of    Triceratops,    from    the    mounted 
skeleton  in  the  National  Museum. 


Sometimes  the  margin  of  the  frill  is  plain,  at  other  times 
it  carries  a  number  of  great  spikes,  like  a  gigantic 
Horned  Lizard  (Phrynosoma) . 

In  Ceratops  the  horns  over  the  eyes  are  large  and  the 
nasal  horn  small.  In  Monoclonius  the  nasal  horn  is 
large  and  those  over  the  eyes  are  rudimentary.  The 
great  variety  of  species  that  has  been  found  in  recent 
years  shows  that  these  Horned  Dinosaurs  were  a 


THE  BEAKED  DINOSAURS  113 

numerous  and  varied  race  of  which  as  yet  we  know 
only  a  few.  Of  their  evolution  we  have  little  direct 
knowledge,  but  probably  they  are  descended  from  the 
Iguanodonts  and  Camptosaurs  of  the  Comanchic,  and 
their  quadrupedal  gait,  huge  heads,  short  tails  and 
other  peculiarities  are  secondary  specializations,  their 
ancestors  being  bipedal,  long-tailed,  small  headed  and 
hornless. 

The  fine  skulls  of  Triceratops,  Monoclonius,  Ceratops 
and  Anchiceratops  in  the  Museum  collections  illustrate 
the  variety  of  these  remarkable  animals.  Complete 
skeletons  of  the  first  two  genera  are  being  prepared  for 
mounting  and  exhibition. 


CHAPTER  X. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION 
OF  DINOSAURS. 

Remains  of  Dinosaurs  have  been  found  in  all  the 
continents,  but  chiefly  in  Europe  and  North  America. 
Explorations  in  other  parts  of  the  world  have  not  as  yet 
been  sufficient  to  show  whether  or  not  each  continent 
developed  especial  kinds  peculiar  to  it,  nor  to  afford  any 
reliable  evidence  as  to  whether  the  relations  of  the 
continents  were  different  during  the  Mesozoic.  Thus 
far,  the  Carnivorous  group  seems  most  widespread,  for 
it  alone  has  been  found  in  Australia.  The  Sauropods 
or  Amphibious  Dinosaurs  have  been  found  in  Europe, 
North  America,  India,  Madagascar,  Patagonia,  and 
Africa,  sufficient  to  show  that  their  distribution  was 
world  wide  with  the  possible  exception  of  Australia, 
and  probable  exception  of  most  oceanic  islands  (few 
of  the  modern  oceanic  islands  existed  at  that  time  al- 
though there  may  well  have  been  many  others  no  longer 
extant).  The  Beaked  Dinosaurs  are  more  limited  in 
their  distribution,  for  none  of  them  so  far  as  at  present 
known  reached  Australia  or  South  America.  But  in 
the  present  stage  of  discovery  it  would  be  rash  to  con- 
clude that  they  were  surely  limited  to  the  regions  where 


GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION  OF  DINOSAURS        115 

they  have  been  discovered.  It  is  not  wholly  clear  as 
yet  whether  the  Dinosaurian  fauna  that  flourished  at 
the  end  of  the  Jurassic  in  the  north  survived  to  the 
Upper  Cretacic  in  the  southern  continents,  but 
present  evidence  points  that  way,  and  indicates  that 
the  girdle  of  ocean  which  during  the  Cretacic  depres- 
sion encircled  the  northern  world,  formed  a  barrier 
which  the  Cretacic  dinosaurian  fauna  never  succeeded 
in  crossing. 

The  earlier  groups  of  Beaked  Dinosaurs  are  found  in 
both  Europe  and  America,  and  in  the  Cretacic  the 
Duck-billed  and  Armored  groups  are  represented  in 
both  regions.  The  Horned  Dinosaurs,  however,  are 
known  with  certainty  only  from  North  America. 

While  most  of  the  important  fossil  specimens  in  this 
country  have  been  found  in  the  West,  more  fragmentary 
remains  have  been  found  on  the  Atlantic  sea-board, 
and  it  is  probable  that  they  ranged  all  over  the  inter- 
vening region,  wherever  they  found  an  environment 
suited  to  their  particular  needs. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
COLLECTING  DINOSAURS. 

How  AND  WHERE  THEY  ARE  FOUND. 

The  visitor  who  is  introduced  to  the  dinosaurs 
through  the  medium  of  books  and  pictures  or  of  the 
skeletons  exhibited  in  the  great  museums,  finds  it 
hard — well  nigh  impossible — to  realize  their  existence. 
However  willing  he  may  be  to  accept  on  faith  the  recon- 
structions of  the  skeletons,  the  restorations  of  the 
animals  and  their  supposed  environment,  it  yet  remains 
to  him  somewhat  of  a  fairy-tale,  a  fanciful  imaginative 
world  peopled  with  ogres  and  dragons  and  belonging  to 
the  unreal  "once  upon  a  time"  which  has  no  connec- 
tion with  the  ever  present  workaday  world  in  which  we 
live.  Birds  and  squirrels,  rabbits  and  foxes  belong  to 
this  real  world  because  he  has  seen  them  in  his  walks 
through  the  woods;  even  elephants  and  rhinoceroses, 
though  his  acquaintance  be  limited  to  menagerie 
specimens,  seem  fairly  real — although  one  recalls  the 
farmer's  comment  on  first  seeing  a  giraffe  in  the  Zoo- 
logical park:  "There  aint  no  sich  animal."  But 
dinosaurs — one  easily  realizes  the  state  of  mind  that 
prompts  the  inquiry  so  often  made  by  visitors  to  the 
Dinosaur  Hall:— "they  make  these  out  of  plaster,  don't 
they? "  So  far  as  is  consistent  with  good  taste,  the 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  117 

aim  of  the  American  Museum  has  been  to  enable  the 
visitor  to  see  for  himself  how  much  of  plaster  recon- 
struction there  is  to  each  skeleton,  and  to  explain  in  the 
labels  what  the  basis  was  for  the  reconstructed  parts. 
How  They  are  Found.  But  to  the  collector  these 
extinct  animals  are  real  enough.  As  he  journeys  over 
the  western  plains  he  sees  the  various  living  inhabi- 
tants thereof,  birds  and  beasts,  as  well  as  men,  pursuing 
their  various  modes  of  life;  here  and  there  he  comes 
across  the  scattered  skeletons  or  bones  of  modern  ani- 
mals lying  strewn  upon  the  surface  of  the  ground  or 
half  buried  in  the  soil  of  a  cut  bank.  In  the  shales  or 
sandstones  that  underlie  the  soil  he  finds  the  objects 
of  his  search,  skeletons  or  bones  of  extinct  animals, 
similarly  disposed,  but  buried  in  rock  instead  of  soft 
soil,  and  exposed  in  canons  and  gullies  cut  through  the 
solid  rock.  Each  rock  formation,  he  knows  by  precept 
and  experience,  carries  its  own  peculiar  fauna,  its 
animals  are  different  from  those  of  the  formation  above 
and  from  those  in  the  formation  below.  Days  and 
weeks  he  may  spend  in  fruitless  search  following  along 
the  outcrop  of  the  formation,  through  rugged  badlands, 
along  steep  canon  walls,  around  isolated  points  or 
buttes,  without  finding  more  than  a  few  fragments,  but 
spurred  on  by  vivid  interest  and  the  rainbow  prospect 
of  some  new  or  rare  find.  Finally  perhaps,  after  in- 
numerable disappointments,  a  trail  of  fragments  leads 
up  to  a  really  promising  prospect.  A  cautious  investi- 
gation indicates  that  an  articulated  skeleton  is  buried 


118 


DINOSAURS 


at  this  point,  and  that  not  too  much  of  it  has  "gone 
out"  and  rolled  in  weathered  fragments  down  the 
slope.  For  the  tedious  and  delicate  process  of  disinter- 
ring the  skeleton  from  the  rock  he  will  need  to  keep 
ever  in  mind  the  form  and  relations  of  each  bone,  the 
picture  of  the  skeleton  as  it  may  have  been  when 
buried.  The  heavy  ledges  above  are  removed  with 


Fig.  41. — A  Dinosaur  skeleton,  prospected  and  ready  for  encasing  in  plaster 
bandages  and  removal  in  blocks.  (Cory thesaurus.  Red  Deer  River, 
Alberta) 

pick  and  shovel,  often  with  help  of  dynamite  and  a 
team  and  scraper.  As  he  gets  nearer  to  the  stratum 
in  which  the  bones  lie  the  work  must  be  more  and  more 
careful.  A  false  blow  with  pick  or  chisel  might  destroy 
irreparably  some  important  bony  structure.  Bit  by 
bit  he  traces  out  the  position  and  lay  of  the  bones, 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  119 

working  now  mostly  with  awl  and  whisk-broom,  un- 
covering the  more  massive  portions,  blocking  out  the 
delicate  bones  in  the  rock,  soaking  the  exposed  surfaces 
repeatedly  with  thin  "gum"  (mucilage)  or  shellac, 
channeling  around  and  between  the  bones  until  they 
stand  out  on  little  pedestals  above  the  quarry  floor. 
Then,  after  the  gum  or  shellac  has  dried  thoroughly 
and  hardened  the  soft  parts,  and  the  surfaces  of  bone 
exposed  are  further  protected  by  pasting  on  a  layer  of 
tissue  paper,  it  is  ready  for  the  "plaster  jacket."  This 
consists  of  strips  of  burlap  dipped  in  plaster-of-paris 
and  pasted  over  the  surface  of  each  block  until  top  and 
sides,  all  but  the  pedestal  on  which  it  rests,  are  com- 
pletely cased  in,  the  strips  being  pressed  and  kneaded 
close  to  the  surface  of  the  block  as  they  are  laid  on. 
When  this  jacket  sets  and  dries  the  block  is  rigid  and 
stiff  enough  to  lift  and  turn  over;  the  remains  of  the 
pedestal  are  trimmed  off  and  the  under  surface  is 
plastered  like  the  rest.  With  large  blocks  it  is  often 
necessary  to  paste  into  the  jacket,  on  upper  or  both 
sides,  boards,  scantling  or  sticks  of  wood  to  secure 
additional  rigidity.  For  should  the  block  "rack,"  or 
become  shattered  inside,  even  though  no  fragments 
were  lost,  the  specimen  would  be  more  or  less  completely 
ruined. 

The  next  stage  will  be  packing  in  boxes  with  straw, 
hay  or  other  materials,  hauling  to  the  railway  and  ship- 
ment to  New  York. 

Arrived  at  the  Museum,  the  boxes  are  unpacked, 


120  DINOSAURS 

each  block  laid  out  on  a  table,  the  upper  side  of  its 
plaster  jacket  softened  with  water  and  cut  away,  and 
the  preparation  of  the  bone  begins.  Always  it  is  more 
or  less  cracked  and  broken  up,  but  the  fragments  lie  in 
their  natural  relations.  Each  piece  must  be  lifted  out, 
thoroughly  cleaned  from  rock  and  dirt,  and  the  frac- 
tured surfaces  cemented  together  again.  Parts  of 
bones,  especially  the  interior,  are  often  rotted  into  dust 
while  the  harder  outer  surface  is  still  preserved.  The 
dust  must  be  scraped  out,  the  interior  filled  with  a 
plaster  cement,  and  the  surface  pieces  re-set  in  posi- 
tion. Very  often  a  steel  rod  is  set  into  the  plaster 
filling  the  interior  of  a  bone,  to  secure  additional 
strength. 

After  this  preparation  is  completed,  each  part  being 
soaked  repeatedly  with  shellac  until  it  will  absorb 
no  more,  the  bones  can  be  handled  and  laid  out  for 
study  or  exhibition.  Then,  if  they  are  to  be  mounted 
for  a  fossil  skeleton,  comes  the  work  of  restoring  the 
missing  parts.  For  this  a  plaster  composition  is  used. 

Where  only  parts  of  one  side  are  missing  the  corre- 
sponding parts  of  the  other  side  are  used  for  model; 
where  both  sides  are  missing,  other  individuals  or 
nearly  related  species  may  serve  as  a  guide.  But  it  is 
seldom  wise  to  attempt  restoration  of  a  skeleton  unless 
at  least  two-thirds  of  it  is  present;  composite  skeletons 
made  up  of  the  remains  of  several  or  many  individuals, 
have  been  attempted,  but  they  are  dangerous  experi- 
ments in  animals  so  imperfectly  known  as  are  most  of 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  121 

the  dinosaurs.  There  is  too  much  risk  of  including 
bones  that  pertain  to  other  species  or  genera,  and  of 
introducing  thereby  into  the  restoration  a  more  or  less 
erroneous  concept  of  the  animal  which  it  represents. 
The  same  criticism  applies  to  an  overly  large  amount  of 
plaster  restoration. 

In  some  instances  the  missing  parts  of  a  skeleton  are 
not  restored,  because,  even  though  but  a  small  part  be 


Fig.  42. — Bone-Cabin  Draw  on  Little  Medicine  River  north  of  Medicine 
Bow,  Wyoming.  The  location  of  the  quarry  is  indicated  by 
the  stack  of  crated  specimens  on  the  left,  and  close  to  it  the  low 
sod-covered  shack  where  the  collecting  party  lived.  Beyond  the 
draw  lies  the  flat  rolling  surface  of  the  Laramie  Plains  and  on  the 
southern  horizon  the  Medicine  Bow  Range  with  Elk  Mountain 
at  the  center. 

gone,  we  have  no  good  evidence  to  guide  in  its  recon- 
struction. This  gives  an  imperfect  and  sometimes  mis- 
leading concept  of  what  the  whole  skeleton  was  like, 
but  it  is  better  than  restoring  it  erroneously.  Usually 
with  the  more  imperfect  skeletons,  a  skull,  a  limb  or 
some  other  characteristic  parts  may  be  placed  on  exhibi- 
tion but  the  remainder  of  the  specimen  is  stored  in  the 
study  collections. 


122 


DINOSAURS 


Where  They  are  Found.  The  chief  dinosaur  localities 
in  this  country  are  along  the  flanks  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains and  the  plains  to  the  eastward,  from  Canada  to 
Texas.  Not  that  dinosaurs  were  any  more  abundant 


Fig.  43. — American  Museum  party  at  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  1899.  Seated, 
left  to  right  Walter  Granger,  Professor  H.  F.  Osborn,  Dr.  W.  D. 
Matthew;  standing,  F.  Schneider,  Prof.  R.  S.  Lull,  Albert  Thomson, 
Peter  Kaison. 


there  than  elsewhere.  They  probably  ranged  all  over 
North  America,  and  different  kinds  inhabited  other 
continents  as  well.  But  in  the  East  and  the  Middle 
West,  the  conditions  were  not  favorable  for  preserving 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  123 

their  remains,  except  in  a  few  localities.  Formations 
of  this  age  are  less  extensive,  especially  those  of  the 
delta  and  coast-swamps  which  the  dinosaurs  fre- 
quented. And  where  they  do  occur,  they  are  largely 
covered  by  vegetation  and  cannot  be  explored  to  ad- 
vantage. In  the  arid  Western  regions  these  formations 
girdle  the  Rockies  and  outlying  mountain  chains  for 
two-thousand  miles  from  north  to  south,  and  are 
extensively  exposed  in  great  escarpments,  river  canons 
and  "badland"  areas,  bare  of  soil  and  vegetation  and 
affording  an  immense  stretch  of  exposed  rock  for  the 
explorer.  Much  of  this  area  indeed  is  desert,  too  far 
away  from  water  to  be  profitably  searched  under 
present  conditions,  or  too  far  away  from  railroads  to 
allow  of  transportation  of  the  finds  at  a  reasonable 
expense.  Fossils  are  much  more  common  in  certain 
parts  of  the  region,  and  these  localities  have  mostly 
been  explored  more  or  less  thoroughly.  But  the  field 
is  far  from  being  exhausted.  New  localities  have  been 
found  and  old  localities  re-explored  in  recent  years, 
yielding  specimens  equal  to  or  better  than  any  hereto- 
fore discovered.  And  as  the  railroad  and  the  auto- 
mobile render  new  regions  accessible,  and  the  erosion 
of  the  formations  by  wind  and  rain  brings  new  speci- 
mens to  the  surface,  we  may  look  forward  to  new  dis- 
coveries for  many  years  to  come. 

In  other  continents,  except  in  Europe,  there  has  been 
but  little  exploration  for  dinosaurs.  Enough  is  known 
to  assure  us  that  they  will  yield  faunae  no  less  extensive 


124  DINOSAURS 

and  remarkable  than  our  own.  We  are  in  fact  only 
beginning  to  appreciate  the  vast  extent  and  variety  of 
these  records  of  a  past  world. 

In  a  preceding  chapter  it  was  shown  that  the  chief 
formations  in  which  dinosaur  remains  have  been  found 
belong  to  the  end  of  the  Jurassic  and  the  end  of  the 
Cretacic  periods.  The  Jurassic  dinosaur  formations 
skirt  the  Rockies  and  outlying  mountain  ranges  but 
are  often  turned  up  on  edge  and  poorly  exposed,  or 
barren  of  fossils.  The  richest  collecting  ground  is  in 
the  Laramie  Plains,  between  the  Rockies  and  the 
Laramie  range  in  south-central  Wyoming,  but  import- 
ant finds  have  also  been  made  in  Colorado  and  Utah. 
The  Cretaceous  Dinosaur  formations  extend  some- 
what further  out  on  the  plains  to  the  eastward,  and 
the  best  collecting  regions  thus  far  explored  are  in 
eastern  Wyoming,  central  Montana  and  in  Alberta, 
Canada. 

THE  FIRST  DISCOVERY  OF  DINOSAURS 

IN  THE  WEST. 
By  Prof.  S.  W.  Williston. 

Most  great  discoveries  are  due  rather  to  a  state  of 
mind,  if  I  may  use  such  an  expression,  than  to  accident. 
The  discovery  of  the  immense  dinosaur  deposits  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains  in  March,  1877,  may  truthfully  be 
called  great,  for  nothing  in  paleontology  has  equalled 
it,  and  that  it  was  made  by  three  observers  simul- 
taneously can  not  be  called  purely  an  accident.  These 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  125 

discoverers  were  Mr.  O.  Lucas,  then  a  school  teacher, 
later  clergyman;  Professor  Arthur  Lakes,  then  a 
teacher  in  the  School  of  Mines  at  Golden,  Colorado; 
and  Mr.  William  Reed,  then  a  section  foreman  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  at  Como,  Wyoming,  later  the 
curator  of  paleontology  of  the  University  of  Wyoming — 
even  as  I  write  this,  comes  the  notice  of  his  death, — 
the  last.  I  knew  them  all,  and  the  last  two  were  long 
intimate  friends. 

In  the  autumn  of  1878  I  wrote  the  following:* 
"The  history  of  their  discovery  (the  dinosaurs)  is 
both  interesting  and  remarkable.  For  years  the  beds 
containing  them  had  been  studied  by  geologists  of 
experience,  under  the  surveys  of  Hayden  and  King, 
but,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  half  of  a  caudal 
vertebra,  obtained  by  Hayden  and  described  by  Leidy 
as  a  species  of  Poikilopleuron,  not  a  single  fragment  had 
been  recognized.  This  is  all  the  more  remarkable 
from  the  fact  that  in  several  of  the  localities  I  have  ob- 
served acres  literally  strewn  with  fragments  of  bones, 
many  of  them  extremely  characteristic  and  so  large  as 
to  have  taxed  the  strength  of  a  strong  man  to  lift  them. 
Three  of  the  localities  known  to  me  are  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  if  not  upon  the  actual  townsites  of  thriving 
villages,  and  for  years  numerous  fragments  have  been 
collected  by  (or  for)  tourists  and  exhibited  as  fossil 
wood.  The  quantities  hitherto  obtained,  though  ap- 


*Transactions  Kansas  Academy  of  Science,  p.  43. 


126  DINOSAURS 

parently  so  vast,  are  wholly  unimportant  in  compari- 
son with  those  awaiting  the  researches  of  geologists 
throughout  the  Rocky  Mountain  region.  I  doubt  not 
that  many  hundreds  of  tons  will  eventually  be 
exhumed."  Rather  a  startling  prophecy  to  make 
within  eighteen  months  of  their  discovery,  but  it  was 
hardly  exaggerated. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  which  of  these  three  observers 
actually  made  the  first  discovery  of  Jurassic  dinosaurs; 
whatever  doubt  there  is  is  in  favor  of  Mr.  Reed. 

Professor  Lakes,  accompanied  by  his  friend  Mr.  E.  L. 
Beckwith,  an  engineer,  was,  one  day  in  March,  1877, 
hunting  along  the  "hogback"  in  the  vicinity  of  Morri- 
son, Colorado,  for  fossil  leaves  in  the  Dakota  Cretaceous 
sandstone  which  caps  the  ridge,  when  he  saw  a  large 
block  of  sandstone  with  an  enormous  vertebra  partly 
imbedded  in  it.  He  discussed  the  nature  of  the  fossil 
with  his  friend  (to  he  told  me)  and  finally  concluded  that 
it  was  a  fossil  bone.  He  had  recently  come  from  Eng- 
land and  had  heard  of  Professor  Phillips'  discoveries  of 
similar  dinosaurs  there.  He  knew  of  Professor  Marsh 
of  Yale  from  his  recent  discoveries  of  toothed  birds  in 
the  chalk  of  Kansas,  and  reported  the  find  to  him.  As 
a  result,  the  specimen,  rock  and  all,  was  shipped  to  him 
by  express  at  ten  cents  a  pound !  And  Professor  Marsh 
immediately  announced  the  discovery  of  Titanosaurus 
(Atlantosaurus)  immanis,  a  huge  dinosaur  having  a 
probable  length  of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  and 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  127 

unknown  height.  And  Professor  Lakes  was  immedi- 
ately set  at  work  in  the  "Morrison  quarry"  near  by, 
whence  comes  the  accepted  name  of  these  dinosaur  beds 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Professor  Lakes  once  showed 
me  the  exact  spot  where  he  found  his  first  specimen. 

Mr.  Lucas,  teaching  his  first  term  of  a  country  school 
that  spring  in  Garden  Park  near  Canon  City,  as  an 
amateur  botanist  was  interested  in  the  plants  of  the 
vicinity.  Rambling  through  the  adjacent  hills  in 
search  of  them,  in  March,  1877,  he  stumbled  upon  some 
fragments  of  fossil  bones  in  a  little  ravine  not  far  from 
the  famous  quarry  later  worked  for  Professor  Marsh. 
He  recognized  them  as  fossils  and  they  greatly  excited, 
not  only  his  curiosity,  but  the  curiosity  of  the  neigh- 
bors. He  had  heard  of  the  late  Professor  Cope  and 
sent  some  of  the  bones  to  him,  who  promptly  labelled 
them  Camarasaurus  supremus. 

The  announcement  of  these  discoveries  promptly 
brought  Mr.  David  Baldwin,  Professor  Marsh's  col- 
lector in  New  Mexico,  to  the  scene.  Only  a  few 
months  previously  he  had  discovered  fossil  bones  in  the 
red  beds  of  New  Mexico,  the  since  famous  Permian 
deposits.  He  naturally  explored  the  same  beds  at 
Canon  City,  immediately  below  the  dinosaur  deposits, 
and  soon  found  the  still  very  problematical  Hallopus 
skeleton,  at  their  very  top,  a  specimen  which  after 
nearly  forty  years  remains  unique  of  its  kind. 

A  few  years  earlier  Professor  Marsh,  on  his  way  east 
from  the  Tertiary  deposits  of  western  Wyoming,  had 


128  DINOSAURS 

stopped  at  Como,  Wyoming,  to  observe  the  strange 
salamanders,  or  "fish  with  legs"  as  they  were  widely 
known,  so  abundant  in  the  lake  at  that  place,  about 
whose  transformations  he  later  wrote  a  paper,  perhaps 
the  only  one  on  modern  vertebrates  that  he  ever  pub- 
lished. While  he  was  there  Mr.  Carlin,  the  sta- 
tion agent,  showed  him  some  fossil  bone  fragments, 
so  Mr.  Reed  told  me,  that  they  had  picked  up  in  the 
vicinity,  and  about  which  Professor  Marsh  made  some 
comments.  But  he  was  so  engrossed  with  the  other 
discoveries  he  was  then  making  that  he  did  not  follow 
up  the  suggestion.  Had  he  done  so  the  discovery  of 
the  "Jurassic  Dinosaurs"  would  have  been  made  five 
years  earlier. 

Mr.  Reed,  tramping  over  the  famous  Como  hills 
after  game — he  had  been  a  professional  hunter  of 
game  for  the  construction  camps  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad — in  the  winter  and  spring  of  1877,  observed 
some  fossil  bones  just  south  of  the  railway  station  that 
excited  his  curiosity.  But  he  and  Mr.  Carlin  did  not 
make  their  discovery  known  to  Professor  Marsh  till 
the  following  autumn,  and  then  under  assumed  names, 
fearing  that  they  would  be  robbed  of  their  discovery. 
I  was  sent  to  Como  in  November  of  1877  from  Canon 
City.  I  got  off  the  train  at  the  station  after  midnight, 
and  enquired  for  the  nearest  hotel — (the  station  com- 
prised two  houses  only),  and  where  I  could  find  Messrs. 
Smith  and  Robinson.  I  was  told  that  the  section 
house  was  the  only  hotel  in  the  place  and  that  these 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  129 

gentlemen  lived  in  the  country  and  that  there  was  no 
regular  bus-line  yet  running  to  their  ranch.  A  freshly 
opened  box  of  cigars,  however,  helped  clear  up  things, 
and  I  joined  Mr.  Reed  the  next  day  in  opening  "Quarry 
No.  1"  of  the  Como  hills.  Inasmuch  as  the  mercury 
in  the  thermometer  during  the  next  two  months  seldom 
reached  zero — upward  I  mean — the  opening  of  this 
famous  deposit  was  made  under  difficulties.  That  so 
much  "head  cheese,"  as  we  called  it,  was  shipped  to 
Professor  Marsh  was  more  the  fault  of  the  weather  and 
his  importunities  than  our  carelessness.  However,  we 
found  some  of  the  types  of  dinosaurs  that  have  since 
become  famous. 

I  joined  Professor  Lakes  at  the  Morrison  quarry  in 
early  September  of  1877,  and  helped  dig  out  some  of  the 
bones  of  Atlantosaurus.  A  few  weeks  later  I  was  sent 
to  Canon  City  to  help  Professor  Mudge,  my  old  teacher, 
and  Mr.  Felch,  who  had  begun  work  there  in  the 
famous  "Marsh  Quarry".  It  was  here  that  we  found 
the  type  of  Diplodocus. 

The  hind  leg,  pelvis  and  much  of  the  tail  of  this  speci- 
men lay  in  very  orderly  arrangement  in  the  sandstone 
near  the  edge  of  the  quarry,  but  the  bones  were  broken 
into  innumerable  pieces.  After  consulation  we  decided 
that  they  were  too  much  broken  to  be  worth  saving — 
and  so  most  of  them  went  over  into  the  dump.  Sacri- 
lege, doubtless,  the  modern  collector  will  say,  but  we 
did  not  know  much  about  the  modern  methods  of  col- 
lecting in  those  days,  and  moreover  we  were  in  too 


130 


DINOSAURS 


much  of  a  hurry  to  get  the  new  discoveries  to  Yale 
College  to  take  much  pains  with  them.  I  did  observe 
that  the  caudal  vertebrae  had  very  peculiar  chevrons, 
unlike  others  that  I  had  seen,  and  so  I  attempted  to 

save  some  samples  of 
them  by  pasting  them 
up  with  thick  layers  of 
paper.  Had  we  only 
known  of  plaster-of-paris 
and  burlap  the  whole 
specimen  might  easily 
have  been  saved.  Later, 
when  I  reached  New 
Haven,  I  took  off  the 
paper  and  called  Pro- 
fessor Marsh's  attention 
to  the  strange  chevrons. 
And  Diplodocus  was  the 
result. 

My  own  connection 
with  the  discoveries  of 
these  old  dinosaurs  con- 
tinued only  through  the 
following  summer,  in 
Wyoming,  when  we 
added  the  first  mammals  from  the  hills  immediately  back 
of  the  station,  and  the  types  of  some  of  the  smaller  dino- 
saurs, and  when  we  explored  the  vicinity  for  other  de- 
posits, on  Rock  Creek  and  in  the  Freeze  Out  Mountains. 


Fig.  44.— The  first  dinosaur  specimen 
found  at  Bone- Cabin  Quarry. 
Hind  limb  of  Diplodocus. 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  131 

How  many  tons  of  these  fossils  have  since  been  dug  up 
from  these  deposits  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  is  beyond 
computation.  My  prophecy  of  hundreds  of  tons  has 
been  fulfilled;  and  they  are  preserved  in  many  museums 
of  the  world.  S.  W.  WILLISTON. 

THE  DINOSAURS  OF  THE  BONE-CABIN  QUARRY.* 
By  Henry  Fair  field  0  shorn. 

One  is  often  asked  the  questions:  "How  do  you  find 
fossils?"  "  How  do  you  know  where  to  look  for  them?" 
One  of  the  charms  of  the  fossil-hunter's  life  is  the 
variety,  the  element  of  certainty  combined  with  the 
gambling  element  of  chance.  Like  the  prospector  for 
gold,  the  fossil-hunter  may  pass  suddenly  from  the 
extreme  of  dejection  to  the  extreme  of  elation.  Luck 
comes  in  a  great  variety  of  ways :  sometimes  as  the 
result  of  prolonged  and  deliberate  scientific  search  in 
a  region  which  is  known  to  be  f ossilif erous ;  sometimes 
in  such  a  prosaic  manner  as  the  digging  of  a  well. 
Among  discoveries  of  a  highly  suggestive,  almost 
romantic  kind,  perhaps  none  is  more  remarkable  than 
the  one  I  shall  now  describe. 

Discovery  of  the  Great  Dinosaur  Quarry.  In  central 
Wyoming,  at  the  head  of  a  "draw,"  or  small 
valley,  not  far  from  the  Medicine  Bow  River,  lies 
the  ruin  of  a  small  and  unique  building,  which  marks 


*From  Fossil  Wonders  of  the  West.     Century  Magazine  1904,  vol. 
Ixviii,  pp.  680-694.     Reprinted  by  permission. 


132  DINOSAURS 

the  site  of  the  greatest  "find"  of  extinct  animals  made 
in  a  single  locality  in  any  part  of  the  world.  The 
fortunate  fossil-hunter  who  stumbled  on  this  site  was 
Mr.  Walter  Granger  of  the  American  Museum  expedi- 
tion of  1897. 

In  the  spring  of  1898,  as  I  approached  the  hillock 
on  which  the  ruin  stands,  I  observed,  among  the 
beautiful  flowers,  the  blooming  cacti,  and  the  dwarf 
bushes  of  the  desert,  what  were  apparently  numbers  of 
dark-brown  boulders.  On  closer  examination,  it  proved 
that  there  is  really  not  a  single  rock,  hardly  even  a 
pebble,  on  this  hillock;  all  these  apparent  boulders  are 
ponderous  fossils  which  have  slowly  accumulated  or 
washed  out  on  the  surface  from  a  great  dinosaur  bed 
beneath.  A  Mexican  sheep-herder  had  collected  some 
of  these  petrified  bones  for  the  foundations  of  his  cabin, 
the  first  ever  built  of  such  strange  materials.  The 
excavation  of  a  promising  outcrop  was  almost  immedi- 
ately rewarded  by  finding  a  thigh-bone  nearly  six  feet 
in  length  which  sloped  downward  into  the  earth,  run- 
ning into  the  lower  leg  and  finally  into  the  foot,  with 
all  the  respective  parts  lying  in  the  natural  position  as 
in  life.  This  proved  to  be  the  previously  unknown  hind 
limb  of  the  great  dinosaur  Diplodocus. 

In  this  manner  the  "Bone-Cabin  Quarry"  was  dis- 
covered and  christened.  The  total  contents  of  the 
quarry  are  represented  in  the  diagram  (not  reprinted.) 
It  has  given  us,  by  dint  of  six  successive  years  of  hard 
work,  the  materials  for  an  almost  complete  revival  of 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  133 

the  life  of  the  Laramie  region  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
the  dinosaurs.  By  the  aid  of  workmen  of  every  degree 
of  skill,  by  grace  of  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  by  the  constructive  imagination, 
by  the  aid  of  the  sculptor  and  the  artist,  we  can  sum- 
mon these  living  forms  and  the  living  environment 
from  the  vasty  deep  of  the  past. 

The  Famous  Como  Bluffs.  The  circumstances  lead- 
ing up  to  our  discovery  serve  to  introduce  the  story. 
From  1890  to  1897  we  had  been  steadily  delving 
into  the  history  of  the  Age  of  Mammals,  in  deposits 
dating  from  two  hundred  thousand  to  three  million 
years  back,  as  we  rudely  estimate  geological  time.  In 
the  course  of  seven  years  such  substantial  progress 
had  been  made  that  I  decided  to  push  into  the  history 
of  the  Age  of  Reptiles  also,  and,  following  the  pioneers, 
Marsh  and  Cope,  to  begin  exploration  in  the  period 
which  at  once  marks  the  dawn  of  mammalian  life 
and  the  climax  of  the  evolution  of  the  great  amphib- 
ious dinosaurs. 

In  the  spring  of  1897  we  accordingly  began  explora- 
tion in  the  heart  of  the  Laramie  Plains,  on  the  Como 
Bluffs.  On  arrival,  we  found  numbers  of  massive  bones 
strewn  along  the  base  of  these  bluffs,  tumbled  from  their 
stratum  above,  too  weather-worn  to  attract  collectors, 
and  serving  only  to  remind  one  of  the  time  when  these 
animals — the  greatest,  by  far,  that  nature  has  ever 
produced  on  land — were  monarchs  of  the  world. 

Aroused  from  sleep  on  a  clear  evening  in  camp  by 


134  DINOSAURS 

the  heavy  rumble  of  a  passing  Union  Pacific  freight- 
train*,  I  shall  never  forget  my  meditations  on  the  con- 
trast between  the  imaginary  picture  of  the  great  Age  of 
Dinosaurs,  fertile  in  cycads  and  in  a  wonderful  variety 
of  reptiles,  and  the  present  age  of  steam,  of  heavy  loco- 
motives toiling  through  the  semi-arid  and  partly  desert 
Laramie  Plains. 

So  many  animals  had  already  been  removed  from 
these  bluffs  that  we  were  not  very  sanguine  of  finding 
more;  but  after  a  fortnight  our  prospecting  was  re- 
warded by  finding  parts  of  skeletons  of  the  long-limbed 
dinosaur  Diplodocus  and  of  the  heavy-limbed  dinosaur 
Brontosaurus.  The  whole  summer  was  occupied  in 
taking  these  animals  out  for  shipment  to  the  East,  the 
so-called  "plaster  method"  of  removal  being  applied 
with  the  greatest  success.  Briefly,  this  is  a  surgical 
device  applied  on  a  large  scale  for  the  "setting"  of 
the  much-fractured  bones  of  a  fossilized  skeleton.  It 
consists  in  setting  great  blocks  of  the  skeleton,  stone 
and  all,  in  a  firm  capsule  of  plaster  subsequently  rein- 
forced by  great  splints  of  wood,  firmly  drawn  together 
with  wet  rawhide.  The  object  is  to  keep  all  the  frag- 
ments and  splinters  of  bone  together  until  it  can  reach 
the  skilful  hands  of  the  museum  preparator. 

The  Rock  Waves  Connecting  the  Bluffs  and  the  Quarry. 
The  Como  Bluffs  are  about  ten  miles  south  of  the 


*At  this  time  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  directly  passed  the  bluffs; 


to  the        th- 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  135 

Bone-Cabin  Quarry;  between  them  is  a  broad  stretch 
of  the  Laramie  Plains.  The  exposed  bone  layer  in  the 
two  localities  is  of  the  same  age,  and  originally  was  a 
continuous  level  stratum  which  may  be  designated  as 
the  "dinosaur  beds;"  but  this  stratum,  disturbed  and 
crowded  by  the  uplifting  of  the  not  far-distant  Laramie 
range  of  mountains  and  the  Freeze  Out  Hills,  was 
thrown  into  a  number  of  great  folds  or  rock  waves. 
Large  portions,  especially  of  the  upfolds,  or  "anticlines," 
of  the  waves,  have  been  subsequently  removed  by 
erosion;  the  edges  of  these  upfolds  have  been  exposed, 
thus  weathering  out  their  fossilized  contents,  while 
downfolds  are  still  buried  beneath  the  earth  for  the 
explorers  of  coming  centuries. 

Therefore,  as  one  rides  across  the  country  to-day  from 
the  bluffs  to  the  quarry,  startling  the  intensely  modern 
fauna,  the  prong-horn  antelopes,  jack-rabbits,  and 
sage-chickens,  he  is  passing  over  a  vast  graveyard  which 
has  been  profoundly  folded  and  otherwise  shaken  up 
and  disturbed.  Sometimes  one  finds  the  bone  layer 
removed  entirely,  sometimes  horizontal,  sometimes 
oblique,  and  again  dipping  directly  into  the  heart  of 
the  earth.  This  layer  (dinosaur  beds)  is  not  more  than 
two  hundred  and  seventy-four  feet  in  thickness,  and  is 
altogether  of  fresh-water  origin;  but  as  a  proof  of  the 
oscillations  of  the  earth-level  both  before  and  after  this 
great  thin  sheet  of  fresh-water  rock  was  so  widely 
spread,  there  are  evidences  of  the  previous  invasion  of 


136  DINOSAURS 

the  sea  (ichthyosaur  beds)  and  of  the  subsequent  in- 
vasion of  the  sea  (mosasaur  beds)  in  the  whole  Rocky 
Mountain  region. 

In  traveling  through  the  West,  when  once  one  has 
grasped  the  idea  of  continental  oscillation,  or  sub- 
mergence and  emergence  of  the  land,  of  the  sequence 
of  the  marine  and  fresh-water  deposits  in  laying  down 
these  pages  of  earth-history,  he  will  know  exactly 
where  to  look  for  this  wonderful  layer-bed  of  the  giant 
dinosaurs;  he  will  find  that,  owing  to  the  uplift  of  vari- 
ous mountain-ranges,  it  outcrops  along  the  entire 
eastern  face  of  the  Rockies,  around  the  Black  Hills,  and 
in  all  parts  of  the  Laramie  Plains;  it  yields  dinosaur 
bones  everywhere,  but  by  no  means  so  profusely  or 
so  perfectly  as  in  the  two  famous  localities  we  are 
describing. 

How  the  Skeletons  Lie  in  the  Bluffs  and  Quarry. 
At  the  bluffs  single  animals  lie  from  twenty  to  one 
hundred  feet  apart;  one  rarely  finds  a  whole  skeleton, 
such  as  that  of  Marsh's  Brontosaurus  excelsus,  the  finest 
specimen  ever  secured  here,  which  is  now  one  of  the 
treasures  of  the  Yale  museum.  More  frequently  a 
half  or  a  third  of  a  skeleton  lies  together. 

In  the  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  on  the  other  hand,  we  came 
across  a  veritable  Noah's-ark  deposit,  a  perfect  museum 
of  all  the  animals  of  the  period.  Here  are  the  largest  of 
the  giant  dinosaurs  closely  mingled  with  the  remains  of 
the  smaller  but  powerful  carnivorous  dinosaurs  which 
preyed  upon  them,  also  those  of  the  slow  and  heavv- 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS 


137 


ff) 


Fig.  45. — COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  AT  BONE-CABIN  QUARRY. 

a.  The  overlying  soil  and  rocks  are  loosened  with  a  pick  and  removed 
with  team  and  scraper  down  to  the  fossil  layer. 

b.  The  fossil  layer  is  carefully  prospected  with  small  tools,  chisels, 
awls  and  whisk  brooms  exposing  the  |bones  as  they  lie  in  the 
rocks. 

c.  The  blocks  containing  the  fossils  are  channelled  around,  plastered 
over  top  and  sides,  undercut  and  carefully  turned  over  and  the 
under  side  trimmed  and  plastered. 

d.  The  blocks  are  then  packed  in  boxes  or  crates  with  hay  or  any 
other  available  packing  material. 

e.  Boxes   are  loaded  on  wagons  and  hauled  across  country  to  the 
railroad. 

f.  Boxes  are  finally  loaded  on  cars  and  shipped  through  to  New  York 
City. 


138  DINOSAURS 

moving  armored  dinosaurs  of  the  period,  as  well  as  of 
the  lightest  and  most  bird-like  of  the  dinosaurs.  Finely 
rounded,  complete  limbs  from  eight  to  ten  feet  in 
length  are  found,  especially  those  of  the  carnivorous 
dinosaurs,  perfect  even  to  the  sharply  pointed  and 
recurved  tips  of  their  toes.  Other  limbs  and  bones  are 
so  crushed  and  distorted  by  pressure  that  it  is  not  worth 
while  removing  them.  Sixteen  series  of  vertebrae  were 
found  strung  together;  among  these  were  eight  long 
strings  of  tail-bones.  The  occurrence  of  these  tails  is 
less  surprising  when  we  come  to  study  the  important 
and  varied  functions  of  the  tail  in  these  animals,  and 
the  consequent  connection  of  the  tail-bones  by  means 
of  stout  tendons  and  ligaments  which  held  them  to- 
gether for  a  long  period  after  death.  Skulls  are  fragile 
and  rare  in  the  quarry,  because  in  every  one  of  these 
big  skeletons  there  were  no  fewer  than  ninety  distinct 
bones  which  exceeded  the  head  in  size,  the  excess  in 
most  cases  being  enormous. 

The  bluffs  appear  to  represent  the  region  of  an  ancient 
shoreline,  such  conditions  as  we  have  depicted  in  the 
restoration  of  Brontosaurus  (fig.  22) — the  sloping 
banks  of  a  muddy  estuary  or  of  a  lagoon,  either  bare 
tidal  flats  or  covered  with  vegetation.  Evidently  the 
dinosaurs  were  buried  at  or  near  the  spot  where  they 
perished. 

The  Bone-Cabin  Quarry  deposit  represents  entirely 
different  conditions.  The  theory  that  it  is  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  flood  is,  in  my  opinion,  improbable,  because 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  139 

a  flood  would  tend  to  bring  entire  skeletons  down  to- 
gether, distribute  them  widely,  and  bury  them  rapidly. 
A  more  likely  theory  is  that  this  was  the  area  of  an  old 
river-bar,  which  in  its  shallow  waters  arrested  the  more 
or  less  decomposed  and  scattered  carcasses  which  had 
slowly  drifted  down-stream  toward  it,  including  a  great 
variety  of  dinosaurs,  crocodiles,  and  turtles,  collected 
from  many  points  up-stream.  Thus  were  brought  to- 
gether the  animals  of  a  whole  region,  a  fact  which  vastly 
enhances  the  interest  of  this  deposit. 

The  Giant  Herbivorous  Dinosaurs.  By  far  the  most 
imposing  of  these  animals  are  those  which  may  be 
popularly  designated  as  the  great  or  giant  dinosaurs. 
The  name,  derived  from  deinos  terrible,  and  sauros 
lizard,  refers  to  the  fact  that  they  appeared  externally 
like  enormous  lizards,  with  very  long  limbs,  necks, 
and  tails.  They  were  actually  remotely  related  to  the 
tuatera  lizard  of  New  Zealand,  and  still  more  remotely 
to  the  true  lizards. 

No  land  animals  have  ever  approached  these  giant 
dinosaurs  in  size,  and  naturally  the  first  point  of  interest 
is  the  architecture  of  the  skeleton.  The  backbone  is 
indeed  a  marvel.  The  fitness  of  the  construction  con- 
sists, like  that  of  the  American  truss-bridge,  in  attain- 
ing the  maximum  of  strength  with  the  minimum  of 
weight.  It  is  brought  about  by  dispensing  with  every 
cubic  millimeter  of  bone  which  can  be  spared  without 
weakening  the  vertebrae  for  the  various  stresses  and 
strains  to  which  they  were  subjected,  and  these  must 


140  DINOSAURS 

have  been  tremendous  in  an  animal  from  sixty  to 
seventy  feet  in  length.  The  bodies  of  the  vertebrae  are 
of  hour-glass  shape,  with  great  lateral  and  interior 
cavities;  the  arches  are  constructed  on  the  T-iron  prin- 
ciple of  the  modern  bridge-builder,  the  back  spines  are 
tubular,  the  interior  is  spongy,  these  devices  being 
employed  in  great  variety,  and  constituting  a  mechani- 
cal triumph  of  size,  lightness,  and  strength  combined. 
Comparing  a  great  chambered  dinosaurian  (Camara- 
saurus)  vertebra  (see  above)  with  the  weight  per  cubic 
inch  of  an  ostrich  vertebra,  we  reach  the  astonishing- 
conclusion  that  it  weighed  only  twenty-one  pounds,  or 
half  the  weight  of  a  whale  vertebra  of  the  same  bulk. 
The  skeleton  of  a  whale  seventy -four  feet  in  length  has 
recently  been  found  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Lucas  of  the  Brooklyn 
Museum  to  weigh  seventeen  thousand  nine  hundred 
and  twenty  pounds.  The  skeleton  of  a  dinosaur  of  the 
same  length  may  be  roughly  estimated  as  not  exceeding 
ten  thousand  pounds. 

Proofs  of  Rapid  Movements  on  Land.  Lightness 
of  skeleton  is  a  walking  or  running  or  flying 
adaptation,  and  not  at  all  a  swimming  one;  a  swimming 
animal  needs  gravity  in  its  skeleton,  because  sufficient 
buoyancy  in  the  water  is  always  afforded  by  the  lungs 
and  soft  tissues  of  the  body.  The  extraordinary  light- 
ness of  these  dinosaur  vertebrae  may  therefore  be  put 
forward  as  proof  of  supreme  fitness  for  the  propulsion 
of  an  enormous  frame  during  occasional  incursions  upon 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  141 

land*.  There  are  additional  facts  which  point  to  land 
progression,  such  as  the  point  in  the  tail  where  the 
flexible  structure  suddenly  becomes  rigid,  as  shown  in 
the  diagram  of  vertebrae  below;  the  component  joints 
are  so  solid  and  flattened  on  the  lower  surface  that  they 
seem  to  demonstrate  fitness  to  support  partly  the  body 
in  a  tripodal  position  like  that  of  a  kangaroo.  I  have 
therefore  hazarded  the  view  that  even  some  of  these 
enormous  dinosaurs  were  capable  of  raising  themselves 
on  their  hind  limbs,  lightly  resting  on  the  middle  por- 
tion of  the  tail.  In  such  a  position  the  animal  would 
have  been  capable  not  only  of  browsing  among  the 
higher  branches  of  trees,  but  of  defending  itself 
against  the  carnivorous  dinosaurs  by  using  its  relatively 
short  but  heavy  front  limbs  to  ward  off  attacks. 

There  are  also  indications  of  aquatic  habits  in  some 
of  the  giant  dinosaurs  which  render  it  probable  that  a 
considerable  part  of  their  life  was  led  in  the  water.  One 
of  these  indications  is  the  backward  position  of  the 
nostrils.  Many,  but  not  all,  water-living  mammals 
and  reptiles  have  the  nostrils  on  top  of  the  head,  in 
order  to  breathe  more  readily  when  the  head  is  partly 
immersed.  Another  fact  of  note,  although  perhaps 
less  conclusive,  is  the  fitness  of  the  tail  for  use  while 
moving  about  in  the  water,  if  not  in  rapid  swimming. 

The  great  tail,  measuring  from  twenty-eight  to  thirty 
feet,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  structures  in  these 
animals,  and  undoubtedly  served  a  great  variety  of 


*A  different  interpretation  of  this  contraction  is  given  upon  p.  68. 


142  DINOSAURS 

purposes,  propelling  while  in  the  water,  balancing 
and  supporting  and  defending  while  on  land.  In 
Diplodocus  it  was  most  perfectly  developed  from  its 
muscular  base  to  its  delicate  and  whip-like  tip,  perhaps 
for  all  these  functions. 

The  Three  Kinds  of  Giant  Dinosaurs.  It  is  very 
remarkable  that  three  distinct  kinds  of  these  great 
dinosaurs  lived  at  the  same  time  in  the  same  general 
region,  as  proved  by  the  fact  that  their  remains  are 
freely  commingled  in  the  quarry. 

What  were  the  differences  in  food  and  habits,  in  struc- 
ture and  in  gait,  which  prevented  that  direct  and  active 
competition  between  like  types  in  the  struggle  for  exis- 
tence which  in  the  course  of  nature  always  leads  to  the 
extermination  of  one  or  the  other  type?  In  the  last 
three  years  we  have  discovered  very  considerable  differ- 
ences of  structure  which  make  it  appear  that  these 
animals,  while  of  the  same  or  nearly  the  same  linear 
dimensions,  did  not  enter  into  direct  competition  either 
for  food  or  for  territory. 

The  dinosaur  named  Diplodocus  by  Marsh  is  the 
most  completely  known  of  the  three.  Our  very  first 
discovery  in  the  Bone-Cabin  Quarry  gave  us  the  hint 
that  Diplodocus  was  distinguished  by  relatively  long, 
slender  limbs,  and  that  it  may  be  popularly  known  as 
the  "long-limbed  dinosaur."  The  great  skeleton  found 
in  the  Como  Bluffs  enabled  me  to  restore  for  the  first 
time  the  posterior  half  of  one  of  these  animals  estimated 
as  sixty  feet  in  length,  the  hips  and  tail  especially  being 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  143 

in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation.  A  larger  animal, 
nearer  seventy  feet  in  length,  including  the  anterior  half 
of  the  body,  and  still  more  complete,  was  discovered 
about  ten  miles  north  of  the  quarry,  and  is  now  in  the 
Carnegie  Museum  in  Pittsburg.  Combined,  these  two 
animals  have  furnished  a  complete  knowledge  of  the 
great  bony  frame.  The  head  is  only  two  feet  long,  and 
is,  therefore,  small  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  great 
body.  The  neck  measures  twenty-one  feet  four  inches, 
and  is  by  far  the  longest  and  largest  neck  known  in  any 
animal  living  or  extinct.  The  back  is  relatively  very 
short,  measuring  ten  feet  eight  inches.  The  vertebrae 
of  the  hip  measure  two  feet  and  three  inches.  The 
tail  measures  from  thirty-two  to  forty  feet.  We  thus 
obtain,  as  a  moderate  estimate  of  the  total  length  of  the 
animal,  sixty-eight  to  seventy  feet.  The  restored 
skeleton,  published  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Hatcher  in  July,  1901, 
and  partly  embodying  our  results,  gave  to  science  the 
first  really  accurate  knowledge  of  the  length  of  these 
animals,  which  hitherto  had  been  greatly  overestimated. 
The  highest  point  in  the  body  was  above  the  hips ;  here 
in  fact,  was  the  center  of  power  and  motion,  because,  as 
observed  above,  the  tail  fairly  balanced  the  anterior 
part  of  the  body. 

The  restoration  by  Mr.  Knight  is  drawn  from  a  very 
careful  model  made  under  my  direction,  in  which  the 
proportions  of  the  animal  are  precisely  estimated.  It 
is,  I  think,  accurate— for  a  restoration — as  well  as 
interesting  and  up-to-date.  These  restorations  are 


144  DINOSAURS 

the  "working  hypotheses"  of  our  science;  they  express 
the  present  state  of  our  knowledge,  and,  being  subject 
to  modification  by  future  discoveries,  are  liable  to  con- 
stant change. 

By  contrast,  the  second  type  of  giant  dinosaur,  the 
Brontosaurus,  or  "thunder  saurian"  of  Marsh,  as 
shown  in  the  restoration  (fig.  22),  was  far  more 
massive  in  structure  and  relatively  shorter  in  body. 
Five  more  or  less  complete  skeletons  are  now  to  be  seen 
in  the  Yale,  American,  Carnegie,  and  Field  Columbian 
museums.  In  1898  we  discovered  in  the  bluffs,  about 
three  miles  west  of  the  Bone-Cabin  Quarry,  the  largest 
of  these  animals  which  has  yet  been  found;  it  was 
worked  out  with  great  care  and  is  now  being  restored 
and  mounted  complete  in  the  American  Museum.  The 
thigh-bone  is  enormous,  measuring  five  feet  eight  inches 
in  length,  and  is  relatively  of  greater  mass  than  that  of 
Diplodocus.  The  neck,  chest,  hips,  and  tail  are  corre- 
spondingly massive.  The  neck  is  relatively  shorter, 
however,  measuring  eighteen  feet,  while  in  Diplodocus 
it  measures  over  twenty-one  feet.  The  total  length  of 
this  massive  specimen  is  estimated  at  sixty- three  feet, 
or  from  six  to  eight  feet  less  than  the  largest  "long- 
limbed"  dinosaur.  The  height  of  the  skeleton  at  the 
hips  is  fifteen  feet.  There  is  less  direct  evidence  that 
the  "thunder  saurian"  had  the  power  of  raising  its  fore 
quarters  in  the  air  than  in  the  case  of  the  "light-limbed 
saurian,"  because  no  bend  or  supporting  point  in  the 
tail  has  been  distinctly  observed. 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  145 

The  third  type  of  giant  dinosaur  is  the  less  com- 
pletely known  "chambered  saurian,"  the  Camarasaurus 
of  Cope  or  Morosaurus  of  Marsh,  an  animal  more 
quadrupedal  in  gait  or  walking  more  habitually  on  all 
fours,  like  the  great  Cetiosaurus,  or  "whale  saurian," 
discovered  near  Oxford,  England.  With  its  shorter 
tail  and  heavier  fore  limbs,  it  is  still  less  probable  that 
this  animal  had  the  power  of  raising  the  anterior  part 
of  its  body  from  the  ground.  Of  a  related  type,  per- 
haps, is  the  largest  dinosaur  ever  found;  this  is  the 
Brachiosaurus,  limb-bones  of  which  were  discovered  in 
central  Colorado  in  1901  and  are  now  preserved  in  the 
Field  Columbian  Museum  of  Chicago.  Its  thigh-bone 
is  six  feet  eight  inches  in  length,  and  its  upper  arm-bone, 
or  humerus,  is  even  slightly  longer. 

Feeding  Habits  of  the  Giant  Dinosaurs.  We  still 
have  to  solve  one  of  the  most  perplexing  problems 
of  fossil  physiology;  how  did  the  very  small  head, 
provided  with  light  jaws,  slender  and  spoon-shaped 
teeth  confined  to  the  anterior  region,  suffice  to 
provide  food  for  these  monsters?  I  have  advanced  the 
idea  that  the  food  of  Diplodocus  consisted  of  some  very 
abundant  and  nutritious  species  of  water-plant;  that 
the  clawed  feet  were  used  in  uprooting  such  plants, 
while  the  delicate  anterior  teeth  were  employed  only 
for  drawing  them  out  of  the  water;  that  the  plants  were 
drawn  down  the  throat  in  large  quantities  without 
mastication,  since  there  were  no  grinding  or  back  teeth 
whatever  in  this  animal.  Unfortunately  for  this 


146  DINOSAURS 

theory,  it  is  now  found  that  the  front  feet  were  not  pro- 
vided with  many  claws,  there  being  only  a  single  claw 
on  the  inner  side.  Nevertheless  by  some  such  means  as 
this,  these  enormous  animals  could  have  obtained  suffi- 
cient food  in  the  water  to  support  their  great  bulk. 

The  Carnivorous  Dinosaurs.  Mingling  with  the 
larger  bones  in  the  quarry  are  the  more  or  less 
perfect  remains  of  swamp  turtles,  of  dwarf  crocodiles, 
of  the  entirely  different  group  of  plated  dino- 
saurs, or  Stegosauria,  but  especially  of  two  entirely 
distinct  kinds  of  large  and  small  flesh-eating  dinosaurs. 
The  latter  rounded  out  and  gave  variety  to  the  dinosaur 
society,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  served  the 
savage  but  useful  purpose,  rendered  familiar  by  the 
doctrine  of  Mai  thus,  of  checking  overpopulation. 
These  fierce  animals  had  the  same  remote  ancestry  as 
the  giant  dinosaurs,  but  had  gradually  acquired  entirely 
different  habits  and  appearance. 

Far  inferior  in  size,  they  were  superior  in  agility, 
exclusively  bipedal,  with  very  long,  powerful  hind 
limbs,  upon  which  they  advanced  by  running  or  spring- 
ing, and  with  short  fore  limbs,  the  exact  uses  of  which 
are  difficult  to  ascertain.  Both  hands  and  feet  were 
provided  with  powerful  tearing  claws.  On  the  hind 
foot  is  the  back  claw,  so  characteristic  of  the  birds, 
which  during  the  Triassic  period  left  its  faint  impres- 
sion almost  everywhere  in  the  famous  Connecticut 
valley  imprints  of  these  animals.  That  the  fore  limb 
and  hand  were  of  some  distinct  use  is  proved  by  the 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  147 

enormous  size  of  the  thumb-claw;  while  the  hand  may 
not  have  conveyed  food  to  the  mouth,  it  may  have 
served  to  seize  and  tear  the  prey.  As  to  the  actual 
pose  in  feeding,  there  can  be  little  doubt  as  to  its  general 
similarity  to  that  of  the  Raptores  among  the  birds,  as 
suggested  to  me  by  Dr.  Wortman  (see  fig.  10); 
one  of  the  hind  feet  rested  on  the  prey,  the 
other  upon  the  ground,  the  body  being  further  balanced 
or  supported  by  the  vertebrae  of  the  tail.  The  animal 
was  thus  in  a  position  to  apply  its  teeth  and  exert  all 
the  power  of  its  very  powerful  arched  back  in  tearing 
off  its  food.  That  the  gristle  of  the  bone  or  cartilage 
was  very  palatable  is  attested  not  only  by  the  tooth- 
marks  upon  these  bones,  but  by  many  similar  markings 
found  in  the  Bone-Cabin  Quarry. 

The  Bird-Catching  Dinosaur.  Of  all  the  bird- 
like  dinosaurs  which  have  been  discovered,  none 
possesses  greater  similitude  to  the  birds  than  the 
gem  of  the  quarry,  the  little  animal  about  seven 
feet  in  length  which  we  have  named  Ornitholestes, 
or  the  "bird-catching  dinosaur."  It  was  a  marvel  of 
speed,  agility,  and  delicacy  of  construction.  Exter- 
nally its  bones  are  simple  and  solid-looking,  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  they  are  mere  shells,  the  walls  being 
hardly  thicker  than  paper,  the  entire  interior  of  the 
bone  having  been  removed  by  the  action  of  the  same 
marvelous  law  of  adaptation  which  sculptured  the 
vertebrae  of  its  huge  contemporaries.  There  is  no 
evidence,  however,  that  these  hollow  bones  were  filled 


148  DINOSAURS 

with  air  from  the  lungs,  as  in  the  case  of  the  bones  of 
birds.  The  foot  is  bird-like;  the  hand  is  still  more  so; 
in  fact,  no  dinosaur  hand  has  ever  before  been  found 
which  so  closely  mimics  that  of  a  bird  in  the  great 
elongation  of  the  first  or  index-finger,  in  the  abbrevi- 
ation of  the  thumb  and  middle  finger,  and  in  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  ring-finger.  These  fingers,  with  sharp 
claws,  were  not  strong  enough  for  climbing,  and  the 
only  special  fitness  we  have  been  able  to  imagine  is  that 
they  were  used  for  the  grasping  of  a  light  and  agile 
prey  (see  figs.  17,  18.) 

Another  reason  for  the  venture  of  designating  this 
animal  as  the  "bird-catcher"  is  that  the  Jurassic  birds 
(not  thus  far  discovered  in  America,  but  known  from 
the  Archceopteryx  of  Germany)  were  not  so  active  or 
such  strong  fliers  as  existing  birds;  in  fact,  they  were  not 
unlike  the  little  dinosaur  itself.  They  were  toothed, 
long-tailed,  short-armed,  the  body  was  feathered  instead 
of  scaled;  they  rose  slowly  from  the  ground.  This 
renders  it  probable  that  they  were  the  prey  of  the 
smaller  pneumatic-built  dinosaurs  such  as  the  present 
animal. 

This  hypothetical  bird-catcher  seems  to  have  been 
designed  to  spring  upon  a  delicately  built  prey,  the 
structure  being  the  very  antipode  of  that  of  the  large 
carnivorous  dinosaurs.  A  difficulty  in  the  bird-catch- 
ing theory,  namely,  that  the  teeth  are  not  as  sharp  as 
one  would  expect  to  find  them  in  a  flesh-eater,  is  some- 
what offset  by  the  similarity  of  the  teeth  to  those  of 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  149 

the  bird-eating  monitor  lizards  (Varanus),  which  are 
not  especially  sharp. 

The  Great  Yield  of  the  Quarry.  Our  explorations 
in  the  quarry  began  in  the  spring  of  1898,  and  have 
continued  ever  since  during  favorable  weather.  The 
total  area  explored  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  year  was 
seven  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  square  feet. 
Not  one  of  the  twelve-foot  squares  into  which  the 
quarry  was  plotted  lacked  its  covering  of  bones,  and 
in  some  cases  the  bones  were  two  or  three  deep.  Each 
year  we  have  expected  to  come  to  the  end  of  this  great 
deposit,  but  it  still  yields  a  large  return,  although  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  we  have  exhausted  the 
richest  portions. 

We  have  taken  up  four  hundred  and  eighty-three 
parts  of  animals,  some  of  which  may  belong  to  the  same 
individuals.  These  were  packed  in  two  hundred  and 
seventy -five  boxes,  representing  a  gross  weight  of  nearly 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds.  Reckoning  from  the 
number  of  thigh-bones,  we  reach,  as  a  rough  estimate  of 
the  total,  seventy-three  animals  of  the  following  kinds : 
giant  herbivorous  dinosaurs,  44;  plated  herbivorous 
dinosaurs,  or  stegosaurs,  3;  iguanodonts  or  smaller 
herbivorous  dinosaurs,  4;  large  carnivorous  dinosaurs, 
6;  small  carnivorous  dinosaurs,  3;  crocodiles,  4;  turtles, 
5.  But  this  represents  only  a  part  of  the  whole  deposit, 
which  we  know  to  be  of  twice  the  extent  already  ex- 
plored, and  these  figures  do  not  include  the  bones 


150  DINOSAURS 

which  were  partly  washed  out  and  used  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  Bone-Cabin.  The  grand  total  would 
probably  include  parts  of  over  one  hundred  giant 
dinosaurs. 

The  Struggle  for  Existence  Among  the  Dinosaurs. 
Never  in  the  whole  history  of  the  world  as  we  now 
know  it  have  there  been  such  remarkable  land  scenes 
as  were  presented  when  the  reign  of  these  titanic  rep- 
tiles was  at  its  climax.  It  was  also  the  prevailing  life- 
picture  of  England,  Germany,  South  America,  and 
India.  We  can  imagine  herds  of  these  creatures  from 
fifty  to  eighty  feet  in  length,  with  limbs  and  gait  analo- 
gous to  those  of  gigantic  elephants,  but  with  bodies 
extending  through  the  long,  flexible,  and  tapering  necks 
into  the  diminutive  heads,  and  reaching  back  into  the 
equally  long  and  still  more  tapering  tails.  The  four 
or  five  varieties  which  existed  together  were  each  fitted 
to  some  special  mode  of  life;  some  living  more  exclu- 
sively on  land,  others  for  longer  periods  in  the  water. 

The  competition  for  existence  was  not  only  with  the 
great  carnivorous  dinosaurs,  but  with  other  kinds  of 
herbivorous  dinosaurs  (the  iguanodonts),  which  had 
much  smaller  bodies  to  sustain  and  a  much  superior 
tooth  mechanism  for  the  taking  of  food. 

The  cutting  off  of  this  giant  dinosaur  dynasty  was 
nearly  if  not  quite  simultaneous  the  world  over.  The 
explanation  which  is  deducible  from  similar  catastrophes 
to  other  large  types  of  animals  is  that  a  very  large 
frame,  with  a  limited  and  specialized  set  of  teeth  fitted 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  151 

only  to  a  certain  special  food,  is  a  dangerous  combina- 
tion of  characters.  Such  a  monster  organism  is  no 
longer  adaptable;  any  serious  change  of  conditions 
which  would  tend  to  eliminate  the  special  food  would 
also  eliminate  these  great  animals  as  a  necessary 
consequence. 


Fig.  46. — Badlands  on  the  Red  Deer  River  in  Alberta.     This  region  is  the 
richest  known  collecting  ground  for  cretacic  dinosaurs. 


There  is  an  entirely  different  class  of  explanations, 
however,  to  be  considered,  which  are  consistent  both 
with  the  continued  fitness  of  structure  of  the  giant 
dinosaurs  themselves  and  with  the  survival  of  their 
especial  food;  such,  for  example,  as  the  introduction  of 
a  new  enemy  more  deadly  even  than  the  great  carniv- 
orous dinosaurs.  Among  such  theories  the  most 


152  DINOSAURS 

ingenious  is  that  of  the  late  Professor  Cope,  who  sug- 
gested that  some  of  the  small,  inoffensive,  and  incon- 
spicuous forms  of  Jurassic  mammals,  of  the  size  of  the 
shrew  and  the  hedgehog,  contracted  the  habit  of  seek- 
ing out  the  nests  of  these  dinosaurs,  gnawing  through 
the  shells  of  their  eggs,  and  thus  destroying  the  young. 
The  appearance,  or  evolution,  of  any  egg-destroying 
animals,  whether  reptiles  or  mammals,  which  could 
attack  this  great  race  at  such  a  defenseless  point  would 
be  rapidly  followed  by  its  extinction.  We  must  accord- 
ingly be  on  the  alert  for  all  possible  theories  of  extinc- 
tion; and  these  theories  themselves  will  fall  under  the 
universal  principle  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  until  we 
approximate  or  actually  hit  upon  the  truth. 

FOSSIL  HUNTING  BY  BOAT  IN  CANADA. 
By  Barnum  Brown. 

"How  do  you  know  where  to  look  for  fossils?"  is  a 
common  question.  In  general  it  may  be  answered  that 
the  surface  of  North  America  has  been  pretty  well 
explored  by  government  surveys  and  scientific  expedi- 
tions and  the  geologic  age  of  the  larger  areas  determined. 
Most  important  in  determining  the  geologic  sequence  of 
the  earth's  strata  are  the  fossil  remains  of  animal  and 
plant  life.  A  grouping  of  distinct  species  of  fossils 
correlated  with  stratigraphic  characters  in  the  rocks 
determines  these  subdivisions.  When  a  collection  of 
fossils  is  desired  to  represent  a  certain  period,  exploring 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  153 

parties  are  sent  to  these  known  areas.  Sometimes 
however,  chance  information  leads  up  to  most  important 
discoveries,  such  as  resulted  from  the  work  of  the  past 
two  seasons  in  Alberta,  Canada. 

A  visitor  to  the  Museum,  Mr.  J.  L.  Wagner,  while 
examining  our  mineral  collections  saw  the  large  bones 
in  the  Reptile  Hall  and  remarked  to  the  Curator  of 
Mineralogy  that  he  had  seen  many  similar  bones  near 
his  ranch  in  the  Red  Deer  Canon  of  Alberta.  After 
talking  some  time  an  invitation  was  extended  to  the 
writer  to  visit  his  home  and  prospect  the  canon.  Ac- 
cordingly in  the  fall  of  1909  a  preliminary  trip  was 
made  to  the  locality. 

From  Didsbury,  a  little  town  north  of  Calgary,  the 
writer  drove  eastward  ninety  miles  to  the  Red  Deer 
River  through  a  portion  of  the  newly  opened  grain  belt 
of  Alberta,  destined  in  the  near  future  to  produce  a 
large  part  of  the  world's  bread.  Near  the  railroad  the 
land  is  mostly  under  cultivation  and  comfortable  homes 
and  bountiful  grain  fields  testify  to  the  rich  nature  of 
the  soil.  A  few  miles  eastward  the  brushland  gives 
way  to  a  level  expanse  of  grass-covered  prairie  dotted 
here  and  there  by  large  and  small  lakes  probably  of 
glacial  origin.  Mile  after  mile  the  road  follows  section 
lines  and  one  is  rarely  out  of  sight  of  the  house  of  some 
"homesteader."  It  is  through  this  level  farm  land 
that  the  Red  Deer  River  wends  its  way  flowing  through 
a  canon  far  below  the  surface.  Near  Wagner's  ranch 
the  canon  was  prospected  and  so  many  bones  found  that 


154  DINOSAURS 

it  appeared  most  desirable  to  do  extended  searching 
along  the  river. 

Usually  fossils  are  found  in  "bad  lands,"  where 
extensive  areas  are  denuded  of  grass  and  the  surface 
eroded  into  hills  and  ravines.  A  camp  is  located  near 
some  spring  or  stream  and  collectors  ride  or  walk  over 
miles  of  these  exposures  in  each  direction  till  the 
region  is  thoroughly  explored.  Quite  different  are 
conditions  on  the  Red  Deer  River.  Cutting  through 
the  prairie  land  the  river  had  formed  a  canon  two  to 
five  hundred  feet  deep  and  rarely  more  than  a  mile 
wide  at  the  top.  In  places  the  walls  are  nearly  per- 
pendicular and  the  river  winds  in  its  narrow  valley, 
touching  one  side  then  crossing  to  the  other  so  that  it 
is  impossible  to  follow  up  or  down  its  course  any  great 
distance  even  on  horseback. 

It  was  evident  that  the  most  feasible  way  to  work 
these  banks  was  from  a  boat;  consequently  in  the 
summer  of  1910  our  party  proceeded  to  the  town  of 
Red  Deer,  where  the  Calgary-Edmonton  railroad 
crosses  the  river.  There  a  flatboat,  twelve  by  thirty 
feet  in  dimension,  was  constructed  on  lines  similar  to  a 
western  ferry  boat,  having  a  carrying  capacity  of  eight 
tons  with  a  twenty-two  foot  oar  at  each  end  to  direct 
its  course.  The  rapid  current  averaging  about  four 
miles  per  hour  precluded  any  thought  of  going  up 
stream  in  a  large  boat,  so  it  was  constructed  on  lines 
sufficiently  generous  to  form  a  living  boat  as  well  as  to 
carry  the  season's  collection  of  fossils. 


COLLECTING   DINOSAURS  155 

Supplied  with  a  season's  provisions,  lumber  for  boxes, 
and  plaster  for  encasing  bones,  we  began  our  fossil 
cruise  down  a  canon  which  once  echoed  songs  of  the 
Bois  brule,  for  this  was  at  one  time  the  fur  territory 
of  the  great  Hudson  Bay  Company. 

No  more  interesting  or  instructive  journey  has  ever 
been  taken  by  the  writer.  High  up  on  the  plateau, 


Fig.  47. — American  Museum  Expedition  on  the  Red  Deer  River.  Fossils 
secured  along  the  oanks  were  packed  and  loaded  aboard  the  large 
scow  and  floated  down  the  river  to  the  railway  station. 

buildings  and  haystacks  proclaim  a  well-settled  coun- 
try, but  habitations  are  rarely  seen  from  the  river  and 
for  miles  we  floated  through  picturesque  solitude 
unbroken  save  by  the  roar  of  the  rapids. 

Especially  characteristic  of  this  canon  are  the  slides 
where  the  current  setting  against  the  bank  has  under- 
mined it  until  a  mountain  of  earth  slips  into  the  river, 


156  DINOSAURS 

in  some  cases  almost  choking  its  course.  A  continual 
sorting  thus  goes  on,  the  finer  material  being  carried 
away  while  the  boulders  are  left  as  barriers  forming 
slow  moving  reaches  of  calm  water  and  stretches  of 
rapids  difficult  to  navigate  during  low  water.  In  one 
of  these  slides  we  found  several  small  mammal  jaws 
and  teeth  not  known  before  from  Canada,  associated 
with  fossil  clam  shells  of  Eocene  age. 

The  long  midsummer  days  in  latitude  52°  gave  many 
working  hours,  but  with  frequent  stops  to  prospect  the 
banks  we  rarely  floated  more  than  twenty  miles  per 
day.  An  occasional  flock  of  ducks  and  geese  were 
disturbed  as  our  boat  approached  and  bank  beaver 
houses  were  frequently  passed,  but  few  of  the  animals 
were  seen  during  the  daytime.  Tying  the  boat  to  a 
tree  at  night  we  would  go  ashore  to  camp  among  the 
trees  where  after  dinner  pipes  were  smoked  in  the  glow 
of  a  great  camp  fire.  Only  a  fossil  hunter  or  a  desert 
traveler  can  fully  appreciate  the  luxury  of  abundant 
wood  and  running  water.  In  the  stillness  of  the  night 
the  underworld  was  alive  and  many  little  feet  rustled 
the  leaves  where  daylight  disclosed  no  sound.  Then 
the  beaver  and  muskrat  swam  up  to  investigate  this 
new  intruder,  while  from  the  tree-tops  came  the  con- 
stant query,  "Who!  Who!" 

For  seventy  miles  the  country  is  thickly  wooded  with 
pine  and  poplar,  the  stately  spruce  trees  silhouetted 
against  the  sky  adding  a  charm  to  the  ever  changing 
scene.  Nature  has  also  been  kind  to  the  treeless 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS 


157 


regions  beyond,  for  underneath  the  fertile  prairie, 
veins  of  good  lignite  coal  of  varying  thickness  are  suc- 
cessively cut  by  the  river.  In  many  places  these  are 
worked  in  the  river  banks  during  winter.  One  vein 
of  excellent  quality  is  eighteen  feet  thick,  although 
usually  they  are  much  thinner.  The  government  right 
has  been  taken  to  mine  most  of  this  coal  outcropping 
along  the  river. 


Fig.  48. — Locality  of  Ankylosaurus  skull  in  Edmonton  formation  in  Red 
Deer  River.  The  skull  is  in  the  rock  just  above  the  pick,  about 
the  center  of  the  photograph. 

Along  the  upper  portion  of  the  stream  are  banks  of 
Eocene  age,  from  which  shells  and  mammal  jaws  were 
secured,  but  near  the  town  of  Content  where  the  river 
bends  southward,  a  new  series  of  rocks  appeared  and 
in  these  our  search  was  rewarded  by  finding  dinosaur 


158  DINOSAURS 

bones  similar  to  those  seen  at  Wagner's  ranch.  Speci- 
mens were  found  in  increasing  numbers  as  we  con- 
tinued our  journey,  and  progress  down  the  river  was 
necessarily  much  slower.  Frequently  the  boat  would 
be  tied  up  a  week  or  more  at  one  camp  while  we  searched 
the  banks,  examining  the  cliffs  layer  by  layer  that  no 
fossil  might  escape  observation.  With  the  little  dingey 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river  was  reached  so  that  both 
sides  were  covered  at  the  same  time  from  one  camp. 
As  soon  as  a  mile  or  more  had  been  prospected  or  a 
new  specimen  secured,  the  boat  was  dropped  down  to  a 
new  convenient  anchorage.  Box  after  box  was  added 
to  the  collection  till  scarcely  a  cubit's  space  remained 
unoccupied  on  board  our  fossil  ark. 

Where  prairie  badlands  are  eroded  in  innumerable 
buttes  and  ravines  it  is  always  doubtful  if  one  has  seen 
all  exposures,  so  there  was  peculiar  satisfaction  in  mak- 
ing a  thorough  search  of  these  river  banks  knowing 
that  few  if  any  fossils  had  escaped  observation.  On 
account  of  the  heavy  rainfall  and  frequent  sliding  of 
banks  new  fossils  are  exposed  every  season  so  that  in  a 
few  years  these  same  banks  can  again  be  explored 
profitably.  This  river  will  become  as  classic  hunting 
ground  for  reptile  remains  as  the  Badlands  of  South 
Dakota  are  for  mammals. 

Although  the  summer  days  are  long  in  this  latitude 
the  season  is  short  and  thousands  of  geese  flying  south- 
ward foretell  the  early  winter.  Where  the  temperature 
is  not  infrequently  forty  to  sixty  degrees  below  zero  in 


COLLECTING  DINOSAURS  159 

winter,  it  is  difficult  to  think  of  a  time  when  a  warm 
climate  could  have  prevailed,  yet  such  condition  is 
indicated  by  the  fossil  plants. 

When  the  weather  became  too  cold  to  work  with 
plaster,  the  fossils  were  shipped  from  a  branch  rail- 
road forty-five  miles  distant,  the  camp  material  was 
stored  for  the  winter  and  with  block  and  tackle  the  big 
boat  was  hauled  up  on  shore  above  the  reach  of  high 
water. 

In  the  summer  of  1911  the  boat  was  recalked  and 
again  launched  when  we  continued  our  search  from  the 
point  at  which  work  closed  the  previous  year.  During 
the  summer  we  were  visited  by  the  Museum's  Presi- 
dent, Prof.  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn,  and  one  of  the 
Trustees,  Mr.  Madison  Grant.  A  canoeing  trip,  one 
of  great  interest  and  pleasure,  was  taken  with  our 
visitors  covering  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  down  the 
river  from  the  town  of  Red  Deer,  during  which  valu- 
able material  was  added  to  the  collection  and  important 
geological  data  secured. 

As  a  result  of  the  Canadian  work  the  Museum  is  en- 
riched by  a  magnificent  collection  of  Cretaceous  fossils 
some  of  which  are  new  to  science. 


REFERENCES. 

The  published  literature  on  this  subject  consists  chiefly  of  technical 
descriptions  and  researches  scattered  through  the  files  of  numerous 
scientific  journals  in  Europe  and  America.  Only  the  more  important 
titles  are  cited  in  this  list.  I  have  also  listed  the  recently  published  text 
books  which  give  the  most  authoritative  treatment  of  the  dinosaurs,  and 
two  or  three  popular  books  dealing  with  fossil  vertebrates.  Students 
consulting  these  authorities  should  remember  that  great  additions  to 
scientific  knowledge  of  dinosaurs  have  been  made  during  the  last  two 
decades,  and  much  of  the  new  evidence  is  as  yet  unpublished  or  un- 
digested. The  views  and  conclusions  presented  in  this  handbook  are 
based  upon  the  study  of  the  American  Museum  collections  as  well  as 
upon  the  authorities  cited  below. 

ABEL,  OTHENIUS,  1912.     Palaeobiologie  der  Wirbelthiere.     Schweitzer- 

bart'sche  Verlagsbuchh.,  Stuttgart. 
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